By this time the reader may be prepared to attend to the case of Servetus, without bringing with him to the examination of the subject, [the unfavorable and unjust supposition, that he was either weak, ignorant and

was profane and vicious.

obstinate, or that he Though he died un

der the charge of heresy he might be a wise and good man; for we have seen that some of the wisest and best of men have been charged with heretical pravity. That Servetus was not weak and ignorant is evident from his literary labors and attainments. On the contrary he must have possessed strong powers of mind, and have been deeply studious, or he could not have done what he did. As to his being charged with obstinacy, nothing has been more common than to charge those with obstinacy who have been firm enough not to act contrary to the convictions of their own minds. What at one time has been deemed constancy in the truth, and been supposed to add lustre to the sufferings of the martyr, has at another time been deemed heretical obstinacy. Had Servetus been a bad man his crimes would not have been concealed, his enemies would no doubt have published them to the world. Could they have impeached his moral character, or detected any thing criminal in his conduct, they would not

have founded their charge of criminality merely on his religious opinions. They had nothing to charge him with but what they deemed his erroneous doctrines.

Let it be remembered the character of this unsuccessful reformer ought to be estimated, not by what the christian world, half awakened from its long sleep of ignorance and superstition, thought of him, nor by what those who were evidently prejudiced wrote and said of him but by what can be ascertained of his real sentiments, spirit and conduct. Let the maxim of Christ ever be remembered. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. By their fruits ye shall know them. By this rule we ought to judge of Servetus. grity and virtue, he was no doubt accepted with God; nor had his enemies any right to persecute or use him ill. He judged for himself, he wrote and published what he thought true, and who had a right to blame, much less to burn him, for using this Liberty?

If a man of inte

10

SECTION III.

The difficulty of obtaining a full and impartial account of Dr. Servetus.

No class of men have had greater injustice done them than reputed heretics. Not content with persecuting them while living, nor even with putting them to a shameful and cruel death, their oppressors have endeavored to ren der their memory infamous. Their enemies had generally influence enough to gain credit to whatever reports they might choose to propa gate and reports circulated by prejudiced per-> sons would accumulate to a bolder tone of ca-t lumny as they spread. While the supposed he retic was treated as a real criminal, by those who professed to be the real ministers of Christ, the zealous guardians of divine truth, and who possessed high authority in the church, the common people, judging of him, not by an ex amination of his real sentiments, spirit and conduct, but merely by the treatment he received from those they regarded as a kind of oracles, would naturally conclude he was justly punished, and easily give credit to the tales which were circulated to his disadvantage. The writings

of reputed heretics were usually destroyed with them, which gave their enemies an opportunity of representing their opinions in whatever light they pleased, without fear of detection: and it may well be supposed that those who burnt their persons would not pay much regard to justice in the representation they gave of their doctrines. Frequently the persecuted had no friends left to plead their cause, or do justice to their memory; while the persecutors had a great sway in the church, a general influence over the judgment of its members, and maintained their cause by the strong arm of power. If the reputed heretic had friends they were awed into silence by the terrors with which persecutors never fail to array themselves. If any friend to truth and justice dared to lift up his voice in defence of the injured, if he escaped the same fate, his voice would be drowned by the clamor of reputed orthodoxy, and the outcry against supposed heresy. A Paul might try to be heard at Ephesus in defence of the faith of Christ, his voice was drowned by the clamor of the multitude, stirred up by the craftsmen, shouting Great is Diana of the Ephesians." Sometimes ages rolled away before a favorable opportunity offered of doing justice to the character of men whose lives were violently taken

in his reasoning, more difficulty in refuting his arguments, than they were willing to admit, or they would not have destroyed him and his writings. He had nothing to support his doctrinces, or to annoy his opposers, but reason and scripture and could men, who had nothing but the promotion of truth in view, be afraid of such weapons?

The pretext for burning reputed heretical books has ever been, that it is dangerous to read them, that their tendency is to corrupt the minds of men. It is worth while to enquire who were the persons called upon to decide on the character and tendency of the proscribed books? Not the people at large, but a few men, who had a particular system to maintain, and were interested in the condemnation of whatever opposed their dogmas, and militated against their usurped authority in the church, Persecutors assumed to themselves the right of judging for all the world, of deciding with an air of infallibility, on the writings of others: they had the audacity to take upon them to determine what the rest of mankind should, and what they should not read, at least so far as their power and influence extended! Even in the present more enlightened age something of the same spirit still remains; there are those