SECTION VII.

IVise and moderate men, in all ages, have disapproved of persecution.

If some men of great parts and learning have been persecutors it arose from their ignorance of the principles of liberty, their being influenced by prejudice and superstition, and their suffering themselves to be guided by a blind zeal for established customs. No man whose learning and great parts led him uniformly to act with wisdom and moderation ever was a persecutor; for persecution is contrary to good sense: how abhorrent then must it be to good sense, refined by literature and science? Gamaliel, though not totally free from jewish prejudices, had the good sense to perceive the folly of persecution, Refrain from these men, (says he) and let them alone; for if this counsel, or this work be of men, it will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God. It had been well if all christians had reasoned as wisely as this jewish doctor. The town-clerk of Ephesus, who restrained the persecutors of Paul, seems to have been a man of similar good sense.

Our Lockes, our Miltons, and a long list of worthies, who have been an honor to human nature, were in their day the determined opposers of persecution, and the champions for christian liberty. Their great souls, enriched with various learning, abhorred the idea of making a man a criminal for his opinions, and even of restraining him from the free communication of them. Persecutors must be men, who either have their feelings benumbed by ignorance, or who are besotted by superstition, or blinded by prejudice, or whom some vile passion or corrupt interest governs. As cruelty is not natural to man, it is most of all unnatural to the christian, and persecution is cruelty; the mind must be strangely blinded, and the heart deeply depraved, before a man can become a perse

cutor.

SECTION VIII,

Persecutors are the real heretics and schismatics.

After all the outcry which persecutors have made about heresy and schism, it may be worth while to enquire how far themselves are guilty of the evils about.which they have made so much noise, and to prevent which they have spilled so

much innocent blood.

As the word heresy

means a sect, a sectarian spirit is a heretical spirit; sectarian rules of faith, such as the creeds of particular parties, when the belief of them is made a term of communion, and penalties annexed to the rejection of them, are real heretical principles; those who manifest that spirit, and maintain those rules of faith, excommunicating and condemning all who differ from them, are the real heretics. This all persecutors do. They make their own party to be exclusively the church of God, they set up their own notions as the standard of orthodoxy, and exclude those who will not receive them and be of their party, subjecting them so far as they have power to pains and penalties; therefore persecutors are real heretics. A schism is a division, but bigots and persecutors, by establishing unscriptural terms of communion. by shutting out of the church those who differ from them, divide the church of God, and are true schismatics.

Under every view in which it can be examined persecution is indefensible. countenance from either reason violates all the precepts of the

It derives no or scripture; it

gospel and is

a scandal to the christian name; it is destruc

tive to the peace and union of christians, and abhorrent to the best feelings of human nature. The persecutor acts on false principles, his zeal is unchristian, and his conduct murderous.

7

CHAPTER V.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE WRITINGS OF SERVETUS.

Sect. 1. His books against the trinity and other reputed orthodox notions. Sect. 2. Servetus' Edition of the Bible. Sect. 3. What the Doctor wrote on the circulation of the blood. Sect. 4. His Edition of Ptolemy's Geography. Sect. 5. A specimen of his epistolary writings.

The destruction of the writings of Servetus renders it impossible to give a full and accurate account of their contents; but such an account as I have been able to collect I will lay before the reader. Had his enemies spared his works, and permitted mankind to judge of their contents for themselves, this account might have been more correct and circumstantial. To be sure in that case it might not have been possible to have blasted his reputation, by disguising his opinions, in the manner they did. Whatever temporary advantages the persecutors of the Doctor might gain to their cause, by