Till they feel this, nothing is done. Then exhibit to them, the promise "by faith of Jesus Christ." This will heal the broken heart. In this great doctrine, together with the practical consequences of it, I have persevered ever since; and, as I come nearer death, I am more and more convinced of its truth and importance. I have been tossed about during my life. I have been engaged in controversy. I have been misrepresented. Sometimes I have been called a Calvinist, and sometimes an Arminian; but I thank God I have never varied in my great views of Divine truth since I first published my sentiments on the subject above forty years ago; and now I would bear my public testimony once more, that this is the true grace of God by which you stand." Brethren, pray for me. Do not pray for me as if my life was to be continued, nor as if I were a minister of any attainments and conse. quence in the church; but pray for me as a poor, weak, frail sinner, who has not yet done with temptation and conflict, and who finds it difficult to be patient in tribulation, and cheerful under long continued weakness and suffering. I need much the prayers of all my friends; but most of all I need the supporting grace of God, that I may be carried through all my remaining trials, and may at length finish my course with joy. "And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified.” Miscellaneous. CALVIN AND SERVETUS. FEW men have suffered more from the virulence of enemies, than Calvin. To censure and to reproach this eminent servant of the Redeemer, have been in some places almost indispensable, either to the attainment or the preservation of theological popularity. The part of his life, on which his enemies have most greedily fallen, and which his friends have been the most ready to pass over as inexcusable, is that, in which he is supposed to have been accessary to the burning of Servetus. In this unhappy transaction, he is usually represented as the principal instrument. "Instigated by a bloody, persecuting spirit, he not only sentenced his antagonist to death, but actually lighted the fires which consumed him."* It is not my design in this short paper to attempt a laboured vindication of Calvin. The following proposi tions, which embrace most of the leading facts relating to the execution of Servetus, I shall endeavour to establish by authentic proofs. 1. It was at the instance of Calvin that Servetus was impeached and imprisoned. This the Reformer was uniformly free to confess. "I do not at all dissemble," says he, “that by my influence and advice, he was, by the civil power, committed to prison. For having received the freedom of the city, I was bound to impeach him, if guilty of any crime." And again; "I do not dissemble, that it was by my means that he was seized in this city, and required to defend his cause. For according to the laws of the city, he could not justly be treated other wise."* detention of Servetus was to effect, if 2. The design of Calvin in the *See Calvin's Theological Tracts, pp 511, and 517. possible, his reformation. Speaking on this subject, on one of the pages above quoted, he says; "What my design was, became evident from the progress of the action. When my colleagues and myself were summoned, it was by no means our fault, that he did not confer peaceably and freely with us concerning his dogmatisms. Had he been in any manner curable, he would have been in no danger of any weightier punishment. He might have saved his life, by mere moderation." 3. Servetus was convicted not merely of heresy, but also of blasphemy. This point is susceptible of abundant proof. Melancthon, in one of his letters to Calvin, says, "I have read your book, in which you have clearly refuted the horrid blasphemies of Servetus." After the Senate of Geneva had pronounced the allegations against Servetus proved, it was formally submitted to the determination of the Swiss churches, "whether they amounted to heresy and blasphemy." Turretin, writing many years after, respecting the execution of Servetus, says, "Neither the laws nor the magistrates would allow him to be treated more mildly, on account of his horrid blasphemies."* We have farther evidence on the subject, in the blasphemous expressions which he actually used. He declared "the Godhead to be in the devils;" and "that several Gods were in each." He affirmed that "the three persons in the Trinity are the sons of Beelzebub." The triune God he denominated "a triple monster a three headed Cerberus-a phantom of devils-an illusion of Satan." 4. Calvin had no part in the condemnation of Servetus. He was not of the tribunal which condemned him. Servetus was tried and condemned by the Senate of Geneva-a civil and not an ecclesiastical courta body of which Calvin never was a member. If any proof of this is necessary, we may give the following extract of a letter from Melancthon to Bullinger. "I judge that the Genevese Senate did perfectly right, to put an end to this obstinate man, who could never cease blaspheming." It may be said, however, that the influence of Calvin carried every thing in the Senate; and that the sentence they passed was as really his, as though the whole issue had been directly at his disposal.—But this objection is in palpable contradiction to facts. The magistrates of Geneva were annually elected; and it is well known, that a majority of the Senators for the year 1553-the year in which Servetus was tried and executed, were in the interest of a faction, which was uniformly opposed to Calvin. It was in this very year, that the Senate voted to restore one to the communion of the church, whom Calvin and his Consistory had excommunicated.* 5. Calvin was unwilling that the sentence, which the Senate had passed on Servetus, should be executed. Writing on this subject at different times, he says, times, he says, "Those things which were done by the Senate are by many ascribed to me. From the time that the articles were proved against him, I never uttered a word concerning his punishment. To this fact all good men will bear me witness.”— "The severity of the punishment I desire to be remitted." "He will be led to punishment to-morrow. We endeavoured to commute the kind of death: but in vain. Why we could effect nothing in his favour, I will inform you at our interview." That this was really the disposition of Calvin, is proved by the testimony of others. Farel, writing to him, says, "By wishing to mitigate the severity of the punishment, you discharge the office of a friend towards your greatest enemy." Tur * See Waterman's Life of Calvin, p. 124. For many of the letters of Calvin and his cotemporaries here quoted, the reader is referred to the collection in that volume. retin too says, in the place we have already quoted; "It is evident that Calvin, with his Colleague Pastors, dissuaded from the burning of Servetus." 6. So far was Calvin from performing, as some have alleged, the office of executioner to Servetus, that he was not even present at his burning. Farel attended the unhap py man to the place of execution, and "with difficulty extorted from him his consent, that the assembly should unite with him in prayer;" but there is no evidence that Calvin was so much as a witness of the scene. Indeed there is sufficient evidence of the contrary; as he never speaks of it in the language of a witness, but always as one who had received his information from others. 7. The conduct of Calvin towards Servetus was applauded by his cotemporaries; and was never censured by any respectable writer until many years after his death.— The former part of this proposition is scarcely disputed. The letters of Melancthon, Bullinger, Peter Martyr, Beza, and others, are still extant, expressly approving the part which he had taken. The latter part of it is equally true, and equally susceptible of proof. Soon after the death of Calvin, Jerome Bolseck, a Papist, an apostate, and a particular enemy of him, undertook to write his life; for the sole purpose, no doubt, of destroying his reputation. But even this writer "no where accuses Calvin of personal hatred to Servetus, or casts any blame upon him for what he had done" relative to his prosecution. "Maimbourg, a Jesuit, wrote a history of Calvinism, in which he says nothing on the subject. Dupin, another Papist, does not even mention Servetus, in his account of Calvin. Bayle, who was of no religious denomination, and who was particularly bold in his observations upon characters, in his life of Calvin," passes no censure on him, in relation to the affair of Servetus. "Heylin, although he says much to the discred it of Calvin, yet never reproaches him with his treatment of Servetus, whom he barely names, as a Socinian, Bishop Burnet, in his history of the English Reformation, passes in silence the story of Servetus, and always mentions Calvin with respect."* The prejudice, under which the name of Calvin has so long laboured, had its origin undoubtedly in the disputes of the seventeenth century, rela tive to his religious sentiments. And the reason why he has been more censured, as a persecutor, than any of the early Protestants, is not that he possessed a more illiberal spirit (for it would be easy to demonstrate that this was not the case) but because he has been more distinguished, as a teacher and defender of that holy "faith, which was once delivered to the saints." P. To the Editor of the Christian Spectator. SIR, I wish to avail myself of the privilege of your miscellany, to suggest a the General Assembly's narrative of few remarks on a single paragraph in the state of religion within their bounds, during the past year. A more animating document than this, considered as a relation of "God's wonderful works" among us, is probably not to be found in the records of our church. I have read it, and commented upon it to my people, with more satisfaction than I could easily express. Nor is it merely as a Presbyterian, but, I trust, also as a friend to christianity, a lover of my country and of mankind, that I have so highly enjoyed this plain account of visitations from on high. It is therefore with the greater concern that I feel constrained to notice a paragraph in it, which may possibly make an unhappy if not an erroneous impression on some minds. The paragraph immediately succeeds a brief detail of the revivals which have occurred in * See Waterman's Life of Calvin, pp. 127-130. the particular Presbyteries and Associations, represented at the General Assembly; and is as follows: "While the Assembly unfeignedly rejoice in these and other signal revivals of religion, and earnestly pray for still more rich manifestations of Divine grace to all the churches, they are convinced that the principal hopes of the church of God must rest on the ordinary operations of the Divine Spirit accompanying the appointed means of grace. The Lord has promised, that the humble, the faithful, and prayerful exertions of his ministers and people, shall never be without his blessing; yet he has reserved to himself the prerogative of watering his churches with copious showers, as he in his wisdom sees fit." I confess to you, Mr. Editor, that this freezing paragraph came upon me like an avalanche from the Alps. It was indeed the privilege of the Assembly to record the transactions of a year the most distinguished for spiritual mercies, which our section of the church has ever known. On ve ry many congregations had the blessing "come down like rain upon the mown grass; as showers that water the earth." But were the members of this venerable body really 66 convinced," from any thing which they saw or heard, that we may not expect as remarkable visitations of God in time to come? Did they "earnestly pray for still more rich manifestations of Divine grace to all the churches," with the belief that God would refuse to hear them? If not, how could they be "convinced that the principal hopes of the church of God must rest on the ordinary operations of the Divine Spirit accompanying the appointed means of grace," when their own narrative distinctly states, that most of the seven thousand one hundred and eighty-six souls, who have been added to the churches during the past year, are the fruits of special revivals; and when also the narrative of the preceding year presents us with nearly the same result? It cer tainly was not their intention to inti. mate, that the members so brought into our churches do not ordinarily prove sound and persevering believ ers. " "The Lord has promised, that the humble, the faithful, and prayerful exertions of his ministers and people, shall never be without his blessing." I find substantially this promise in the book of God, but no such limitation of it as the remainder of the sentence would suggest. The testimony of Scripture is, that God is willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him; yes, more willing to do it, than parents are to give good gifts to their children. Jesus Christ has also assured his people, and particularly his ministers, that he will be with them even to the end of the world. Not a syllable is uttered in either of these declarations, nor, so far as I have been able to find, in any corresponding passage of holy writ, which will warrant the conclusion, that God is not willing to crown "the humble, the faithful, and prayerful exertions" of his ministers and people in general, with more than what are termed the ordinary operations of his Spirit. Who then may presume to annex this limitation of his grace, and thus virtually advise us to expect but comparatively meager results from our humble and prayerful efforts? "Yet he has reserved to himself the prerogative of watering his churches with copious showers, as he in his wisdom sees fit." No assertion could be more evidently true. The same however cannot be said of the inference which might be derived from it. I cheerfully admit, that it is the sovereign prerogative of God to water his churches with these outpourings of his Spirit; but is it not equally so, to confer upon them any measure of convicting and sanctifying influence? The preceding narrative certainly does not afford a shadow of proof, that God is not as ready to give the former, in answer to the supplications of his people, as the latter; and it deserves to be most seriously enquired, whether one great reason why revivals of religion have not been more frequently experienced, in some of our churches, is not the comparative neglect of ministers and people to pray for them. God gives the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. May we not believe, that he does this in a degree proportioned to the faith, the importunity, and perseverance with which he is asked? And that those churches which almost habitually expect and pray for revivals, more commonly enjoy the blessing than others which consider them rather in the light of a favour, which prayer is not likely to obtain nor God to bestow, except in peculiar cases? I am free to acknowledge, Mr. Editor, that my "principal hopes of the church of God" do not rest on the ordinary, but the extraordinary "operations of the Spirit accompanying the appointed means of grace;" if it is not, in truth, already too late to give revivals of religion this denomination. And I am happy in knowing that I am not altogether singular in this opinion. It was avowedly that of the late President of Yale College. "These revivals," he remarked, in a private conversation with me but a few months before his death, and with more of heaven in his eye than even he usually expressed, "appear to be the beginning of the millennium. I have no doubt, myself, but they will follow each other in a continual and increasingly rapid succession, until the world shall be converted unto Christ." Nor is it easy to understand, in what other way we can rationally expect this great moral renovation to take place. But in reality, what substantial cause have we for doubt on this point? Was it not through a succession of such revivals, that christianity *It will be observed, that I use the word revival in its largest and more popular acceptation. achieved her first conquests in our world, that she renewed her strength after the most of her persecutions by the Roman Emperors, and gloriously triumphed, at the era of the reformation? Is it not principally through these, that she has recently obtained a footing in several heathen countries? Has not the frequency of revivals in this and some other christian lands, actually kept pace with our increasing efforts to promulgate the gospel? So frequent, indeed, has been their recurrence of late years, as to excite in some churches an almost constant expectation of enjoying them and we can readily believe that they will become so common, within the period of half a century, that christians shall no longer speak of them as extraordinary operations of the Spirit. On this ground I must be jealous of every unnecessary caveat which may possibly have an unhappy influence. A PRESBYTERIAN. [In the obituary notice of Mr. Leavitt, in our number for June, we expressed our intention of publishing some of the manuscripts which he left. We have selected the following.] On returning to College, May, 1819. AGAIN has Edwin left his native bowers, The bowers of innocence, again returning To spend the dull and melancholy hours Where study's pale and lonely lamp is burning. Years of his youth how rapidly ye fled Not thinking that so fair a form so soon would fade away. Alas the flower has faded, even now Cold disappointment's hand his bosom chilling, Her melancholy impress on his brow Has stamped, bis youthful heart with sorrow filling. |