This most extensive of the works of Servetus (734 pp. 8vo) presents no thorough elaboration and sj'stematic statement of his ideas, but consists rather of a series of disconnected papers, some of them new and others emen- dations of earlier productions from his pen. It con- tains seven books De Trinitate Divina ; three books De Fide et Justitia Regni Christi, et de Caritate; live books De Regeneratione et Itfanducatiune Supema et de Regno Antichristi ; Epistolce Ti-iginta ad Jo. Calvimim; Signa Sexagiiita Regni Antichristi et Reve- lutio ejus jam nunc P)-(esens ; and De Mystei'io Trinita- tis et Veterum Disciplina ad Ph. Meluncthonem, etc.. Apologia. The attitude of the author towards the dogma of God, the Father, Son, and Spirit, as held by the Church, is that of uncompromising hostility. He regards it as of necessity involving trithelsm and poly- theism, and even atheism ; or, on the other hand, as in- conceivable; and he linds it signilicant that this doe- trine began to prevail at the very time from which the Church must date its growing degeneracy. But, while rejecting a trinity of essence in the Godhead, he insists on a trinity of manifestation ; the fundamental principle that God is one and undivided leads to a second princi- ;ilo — namely, that everything which comes to pass in or with the divine nature is but a disposition, which does not affect the divine essence, but must be regarded some- what as one of its accidents. God is able to dispose and manifest himself because he is not an abstract unit, a bare mathematical point, but rather an infinite Spirit, an infinite ocean of substance which fashions all forms and bears them within itself. His manifestation of him- self results from the act of his will, rather than from any necessity lying in his nature, and takes place because without such revelation of himself he could not be known by his creatures. The mode of manifestation is likewise wholly subject to his will, and he is by no means limited to only two revelations of himself; his incorporation in Christ was determined simply by the needs of the world he has cliosen to create and those of the human race. It pleased him, consequentl}', to dispose himself to a twofold manifestation, the one a mode of revelation hg the Word, the other a mode of impart ation by the Spirit. The Word, however, was not merely an empty articu- late sound, but, in harmony with the nature of God, an uncreated light. The Logos is the Eternal Thought, the Eternal Reason, the Ideal World, the Archetype of the world in wliich the original types of all things are con- tained. In this Divine Light was already manifested tlie form of the future Christ, not ideally alone, but actually and visibly , and from this original type and mode of di- vine revelation proceed all the modifications of the Deity. The creation of the world, for example, was the necessary condition for the incarnation of the Christ who was pre- formed in the Eternal Light, which incarnation had been decreed l)y the will of (iod; so that the world came into l)eing thniugli Christ, and solely to admit of his becom- ing man, and it lias no significance aside from him who should appear in it and reign. But as a vapor rises with the utterance of a word, so the spirit of (lod came forth on the utterance of the Creative Word, and the sec-
ond mode of revelation and disposition was given, in in- timate combination with the first. That spirit is more immediately the spirit of natural life, which moves on the waters and breathes in the air — the world-soul, by which in respiration the living soul is first given to man. The incarnation of Christ was delayed and obscured by man's fall into sin, but he nevertheless revealed himself in many though imperfect forms. Adam was created in his image; angels and theophanies were his shadows, the cloud of light in the wilderness was the reflection of the heavenly light. The spirit, too, was in the world, but only as a spirit of law and terror. The truth, and God himself, attained to a full manifestation and reve- lation for the first time in the man Jesus, in whom the Eternal Word became incarnate in time. The genera- tion of this man is to be conceived of as literal, the De- ity which formed the substance of the Logos in the Un- created Light taking the place of the paternal seed, and the three superior elements contained in that light — fire, air, and water — combined with the Christ-idea and the Life-spirit, uniting with the blood and earth-sub- stance of the Virgin to form a real man ; but the man is so penetrated by the Deity that he becomes God in his flesh and blood, his body, soul, and spirit ; he was such while in the embr3'0, and continues to bear the substan- tial form of the Godhead when in the grave. The Word, accordingly, did not assume flesh, but became flesh. By virtue of this nature Christ is the Son of God — the only Son, especialh' the only eternal Son. The eternal gen- eration of the Son within the Godhead is a simple mon- strosity, since generation is a function of tJie flesh alone; an ante-mundane ;)e?vwn is conceivable only as it signifies the image or form of Christ as the pre-existing Word, who first became the actual Son of God, however, when he appeared in time and in the nature of man. The manifestation of tlie divine glory in the person of Christ was, moreover, a gradual process, not fully realized so far as his body is concerned until the resurrection, when he returned into the divine idea as he had previously come out from that idea into corporeal existence. He is now Jehovah — not Elohim, the God who may appear — and as such is seen by the eye of faith and participates in all the creative power, honor, and dominion of God, with whon\he is identified. The Holg Ghost, too, \& depend- ent on the resurrection of Christ for the consummation of his character and his truth. The fulness of the Di- vine Spirit was imparted in connection with the Word to the soul of Christ on his becoming incarnate, the two constituting but a single and indivisible substance; but the soul included corruptible elements of blood and cre- ated light down to the experience of the resurrection. In that experience he was, so to speak, born again ; the creature element was laid aside: his human spirit was wholly absorbed into the Spirit of God, and the result- ant combination forms the true Holy Spirit, the principle of all regeneration, which proceeds from the mouth of Christ. In this way the real Trinitv is constituted — a trinity not of things or so-called persons in the divine essence, but a threefold manifestation of himself by the one and indivisible God.