In his Christianismi Restitutio, the Doctor is said to have taken the church of Rome to be the beast mentioned in the Apocalypse, and to have expressed his abhorrence of the doctrines and practices of that church. Of which the following passages have been given as a specimen.

'The Devil, with wonderful artifice, suggests to the minds of papists the doctrine of making prayers for the souls of the dead, that men may neglect the duties of a good life while they live.'

Is it not the vainest conjecture in the world, á fiction of demons, and a certain sign of antichrist, to erect the supremacy of the pope, upon some passages only of Peter's faith? To put such a wrong sense upon places of scripture, as to make them speak in favor of idols and cowles, and sacrilegiously to foist into the book of God, such a variety of traditions is monstrous wickedness. In vain is God worshipped by the papists, through the doctrine of the pope, and the commandments of men. Mat. 15.'

'Was Peter to see the abominable comedy, as it is acted by his successors, with mitres, cowles, and shaved pates, with all their pageant vestments, and all the people so egregiously guilty of idolatry, he would be struck with

astonishment to the last degree. In their babylonish mass there is no eucharist, no supper of communion, no charity, no participation of the body of Christ. But as in the synagogue of Satan, the pitiful priest breaks a little bit of the unleavened host, and privately devours it, saying corban, i. e. this shall also do you good; so the priests at Rome do no more.'

He concludes his discourse concerning the sixty signs of antichrist, with these words, "Whoever believes that the pope is antichrist, will also believe, that a popish trinity, infant baptism, and the other sacraments of the papacy, are doctrines of demons. O Christ Jesus, Son of God, most merciful redeemer, who hast so often delivered thy people from their miseries, deliver us miserable men, from these babylonsih fetters and shackles of antichrist, from his hypocrisy, tyranny and idolatry. Amen.'

These passages show that Servetus was no less zealous against the errors of the papists than against those of the protestants, and that he regarded those things which he opposed in the latter as derived by them from the former.

SECTION II.

Servetus' Edition of the Bible.

The edition of the bible which Servetus revised, was the latin version of Pagninus, printed in folio, by Hugo de la Parte, in 1542. As the Doctor's preface is somewhat curious, and gives an idea of what he thought a right mode of interpreting prophecy, I will insert it at length.

'MICHAEL VILLANOVANUS to the Reader.”

We are taught by that wise man, Jesus the Son of Sirach, in the beginning of his apocryphal book, called Ecclesiasticus: That the hebrew tongue, when translated into any other language, is defective, and the spirit of it is almost lost; well observing, that the lively energy of spirit, emphasis of expression, harmony, antitheses, allusions, and the like, cannot be exactly kept up in our translations; from whence, for good reason, most, both ancients and moderns, who have, with the greatest care, interpreted the scriptures, have never come up to the whole sense; especially since they who are ignorant of the affairs and customs of the

hebrews, give very easily into the contempt of the historical and literal sense, which is the only certain sign of any thing future, from whence it comes to pass, that they ridiculously, and to no manner of purpose, pursue the mystical sense every where. Wherefore I would desire you again and again, christian reader, to get the knowledge of the hebrew, in the first place, and after that, diligently to apply yourself to the study of the jewish history, before you enter upon the reading of the prophets, for each of the prophets pursued, according to the letter, their history, both as to that part which points out things to come, and as to that in which the mysteries of Christ, according to the spirit, are hid; for all things turned up to them in types, as St. Paul says, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, as saith St. John, is a spirit of prophecy; although there was another sense of the prophets then, according to the letter, as the course of their history led them. But if any one denies that sense to be truly literal, because the force of the expression does not always serve to the purpose, I will readily allow it him. This, however, ought to be considered, that the hebrew language is very full of hyperboles, and other great mysteries are contained therein. It must be considered too, that if the literal sense

is not mentioned, yet there is some shadow of future verity, as under the shade of David, some truth belonging to Christ alone, darts forth with a shining lustre; for from his histories in the Psalms, there are several occasions taken of predicting many passages concerning Christ. It is indeed upon this account, that he is said to be a type of Christ. After the same manner of paint, it is said of Solomon, I will be to him a father; and of the Israelitish people, it is said, out of Egypt have I called my son, when that in truth agreed to Christ alone; so that we may say, that the literal prophetic sense refers to Christ; to which we may add, that this book is said to be written within and without; and there is a twofold face in the scriptures, in like manner as one sword has two edges. The force of scripture is very general, and under the antiquity of the declining letter, it contains so much fresh vigor of the enlivening spirit, that when one sense is collected from it, it would be monstrous to neglect the other: more especially, since that historical sense discloses the mystical of its own accord; from whence it is, that we always endeavor to search out, though it costs never so much pains, that old literal or historical sense (so generally neglected) by having recourse to the Scholia; so that the mystical