Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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clear; he is now represented as the divinity itself, now as a disposition and
person. The orthodox christology of two natures in one person is entirely
rejected. God has no nature (from nasci), and a person is not a compound
of two natures or things, but a unit.
The fifth book is a worthless speculative exposition of the Hebrew names
of God. The Lutheran doctrine of justification is incidentally attacked as
calculated to make man lazy and indifferent to good works.
The sixth book shows that Christ is the only fountain of all true knowledge
of God, who is incomprehensible in himself, but revealed himself in the
person of his Son. He who sees the Son sees the Father.
The seventh and last book is an answer to objections, and contains a new
attack on the doctrine of the Trinity, which was introduced at the same
time with the secular power of the pope. Servetus probably believed in the
fable of the donation of Constantine.
It is not surprising that this book gave great offence to Catholics and
Protestants alike, and appeared to them blasphemous. Servetus calls the
Trinitarians tritheists and atheists. f1048 He frivolously asked such questions
as whether God had a spiritual wife or was without sex. f1049 He calls the
three gods of the Trinitarians a deception of the devil, yea (in his later
writings), a three-headed monster. f1050
Zwingli and Oecolampadius died a few months after the publication of the
book, but condemned its contents beforehand. Luther’s and Bucer’s views
on it have already been noticed. Melanchthon felt the difficulties of the
trinitarian and christological problems and foresaw future controversies.
He gave his judgment in a letter to his learned friend Camerarius (dated 5
Id. Febr. 1533): —
“You ask me what I think of Servetus? I see him indeed
sufficiently sharp and subtle in disputation, but I do not give him
credit for much depth. He is possessed, as it seems to me, of
confused imaginations, and his thoughts are not well matured on
the subjects he discusses. He manifestly talks foolishness when he
speaks of justification. peri; thdov [on the subject of the
Trinity] you know, I have always feared that serious difficulties
would one day arise. Good God! to what tragedies will not these
questions give occasion in times to come: ei[ ejstin uJpo>stasiv oJ
logvo> [is the Logos an hypostasis]? ei[ ejstin ujpo>stasiv to