Possessed, as he was, by the principles of the Neo-platonic and other more ancient philosophies, Servetus assimilates Christ to the Demiurgos, and makes of him the architect and fashioner of the world--_ille mundi Architectus Christus_--Creator even of the elements from which, intermingled, are educed the substantial forms of things. How this was brought about if Christ only became a reality at his birth, he does not say. But it is not a little interesting to note how nearly our own Great King of transcendental song approaches some of these fancies of our author, for Milton too speaks of Light as Offspring of heaven firstborn, Or of the eternal coeternal beam; Since God is light, And never but in unapproached light, Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee, Bright effluence of bright essence increate. A little further on he also has the Son as Agent in Creation:-- And thou, my Word, begotten Son, by thee This I perform: speak thou and be it done. Creation ended, he continues:-- The filial Son arrived and sat him down With his great Father! Into what labyrinths are men led when they give the rein to imagination, and the demon of speculation divorced from science is suffered to have his uncontrolled way! * * * * * Coming to a more particular analysis of the ‘Restitutio,’ we find the first book treating of the man Jesus, in which he is shown to be, 1st, Man; 2nd, Son of God; and 3rd, God. I. The name Jesus [Joshua, Hebraice], says Servetus, is the name of a man and was given on the day of the Circumcision; the cognomen Christ [Χρίστος, Græce, the anointed], was bestowed by the Disciples, but never admitted by the Jews, who only knew Jesus as the son of Joseph. There was indeed frequent discussion among the disciples themselves, whether Jesus was the Messiah or not; and we know that kings, in virtue of the anointing at their coronation, were entitled Christs--Cyrus, for instance, is called Masach by the Prophet, the word Christ being no more than the Hebrew title translated into Greek. II. It is as a Son of God,--υἵος Θεοῦ--that Jesus is spoken of in the Scriptures. But if so, then is he to be thought of as engendered by God as thou by thy father. God, it is true, is in a certain sense the Father of all men as he is of Jesus; but we are his sons by adoption as Jesus is his Son by nature. Jesus, indeed, was believed to be the son of Joseph, but he was truly the Son of God, having, without any sophistry, been engendered of his substance: the Word of God overshadowed the Virgin like a cloud, and acted in her as generative dew, comparable to the shower from heaven that causes the earth to bring forth flowers and fruit. It follows, therefore, that the son of the Virgin is also truly, naturally, the Son of God.