History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century, Volume 2Merle d'Aubigné, J. H. (Jean Henri)
History
History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century, Volume 2
Merle d'Aubigné, J. H. (Jean Henri)
Reformation
The Two Reformers--The Fall of Man--Expiation of the
God-Man--No merit in Works--Objections refuted--Power of
Love to Christ--Election--Christ alone Master--Effects of
this Preaching--Despondency and Courage--First Act of the
Magistrate--Church and State--Attacks--Galster.
Though desirous to follow the path of meekness, Zuinglius was not
idle. Since his illness his preaching had become more profound and
enlivening. More than two thousand persons in Zurich had received the
word of God into their heart, made profession of the evangelical
doctrine, and were themselves able to announce it.[764]
[764] Non enim soli sumus Tiguri plus duobus millibus permultorum est
rationalium qui lac jam Spirituali sugentes.... (Ibid., p. 104.) For
we are not alone: at Zurich are more than two thousand of very
rational beings, who now seek spiritual food.
[Sidenote: THE DOCTRINE TAUGHT BY ZUINGLIUS.]
Zuinglius' faith was the same as Luther's, but more the result of
reasoning. Luther advances with a bound. Zuinglius owes more to
clearness of perception. Luther's writings are pervaded with a
thorough personal conviction of the benefits which the cross of Christ
confers upon himself, and this conviction, glowing with heat and life,
is the soul of all he says. The same thing doubtless exists in
Zuinglius, but in an inferior degree. He had looked more to the
Christian system as a whole, and admired it particularly for its
beauty, for the light which it sheds into the human mind, and the
eternal life which it brings to the world. The one is more the man of
heart, the other more the man of intellect; and hence it is that those
who do not experimentally know the faith which animated these two
great disciples of the Lord, fall into the grossest error, making the
one a mystic and the other a rationalist. The one is more pathetic,
perhaps, in the exposition of his faith, and the other more
philosophical, but both believe the same truths. They do not, however,
look at all secondary questions from the same point of view, but that
faith which is one, that faith which quickens and justifies its
possessor, that faith which no confession, no article of doctrine can
express, is in the one as in the other. The doctrine of Zuinglius has
often been so much misrepresented, that it seems proper here to give
an account of what he preached at this time to the increasing crowds
who flocked to the cathedral of Zurich.
The fall of Adam, Zuinglius regarded as the key to man's history.
"Before the fall," said he one day, "man had been created with a free
will, so that he was able, if he chose, to keep the law, his nature
was pure, being as yet untainted by the malady of sin; his life was in
his own hand. But wishing to be equal to God, he died ... and not he
only, but every one of his descendants. All men being dead in Adam
none can be recalled to life until the Spirit, who is God himself,
raise them from death."[765]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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