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

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livres from the publisher in payment for the vain trifles and impious follies
with which he had encumbered almost every page of the book. f1067
§ 145. CORRESPONDENCE OF SERVETUS
WITH CALVIN AND POUPIN.
While engaged in the preparation of his last work at Vienne, Servetus
opened a correspondence with Calvin through Jean Frellon, a learned
publisher at Lyons and a personal friend of both. f1068 He sent him a copy of
his book as far as then finished, and told him that he would find in it
“stupendous things never heard of before.” f1069 He also proposed to him
three questions:
1) Is the man Jesus Christ the Son of God, and how?
2) Is the kingdom of God in man, when does man enter into it, and
when is he born again?
3) Must Christian baptism presuppose faith, like the Lord’s Supper,
and to what end are both sacraments instituted in the New
Testament? f1070
Calvin seems to have had no time to read the whole manuscript, but
courteously answered the questions to the effect,
1) that Christ is the Son of God both according to his divine nature
eternally begotten, and according to his human nature as the Wisdom
of God made flesh;
2) that the kingdom of God begins in man when he is born again, but
that the process of regeneration is not completed in a moment, but goes
on till death;
3) that faith is necessary for baptism, but not in the same personal way
as in the Lord’s Supper; for according to the type of circumcision the
promise was given also to the children of the faithful. Baptism and the
Lord’s Supper are related to each other as circumcision and the
passover. He referred to his books for details, but was ready to give
further explanation if desired. f1071
Servetus was by no means satisfied with the answer, and wrote back that
Calvin made two or three Sons of God; that the Wisdom of God spoken of
by Solomon was allegorical and impersonal; that regeneration took place in