90 THE SWISS REFORMATION.
tions) ; Christ is the only Saviour and Mediator between God and men (which excludes human mediators and the worship of saints) ; Christ is the only head of the Church visible and invisible (against the claims of the pope) ; the operation of the Holy Spirit and saving grace are not confined to the visible Church (which breaks with the principle of exclusiveness).
1. Zwingli emphasizes the Word of God contained in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, as the only rule of Christian faith and practice. This is the objective principle of Protestantism which controls his whole theology. Zwingli first clearly and strongly proclaimed it in his Conclusions (1523), and assigned to it the first place in his system ; while Luther put his doctrine of justification by faith or the subjective principle in the foreground, and made it the article of the standing or fallino' church. But with both Reformers the two principles so-called resolve themselves into the one principle of Christ, as the only and sufficient source of saving truth and saving grace, against the traditions of men and the works of men. Christ is before the Bible, and is the beginning and end of the Bible. Evangelical Christians believe in the Bible because they believe in Christ, and not vice versa. Roman Catholics believe in the Bible because they believe in the Church, as the custodian and infallible interpreter of the Bible.
As to the extent of the Bible, or the number of inspired books, Zwingli accepted the Catholic Canon, with the exception of the Apocalypse, which he did not regard as an apostolic work, and hence never used for doctrinal purposes.^ Calvin doubted the genuineness of the Second Epistle of Peter and the Pauline origin of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Both accepted the canon on the internal testimony of the
1 He missed in it both the style and the genius of St. John. "JVbn sapit os et ingenium Joannis." Zwingli and Luther were both wrong in their unfavorable judgment of the Revelation of " the Son of Thunder."
§ 20. THE THEOLOGY OF ZWINGLI. 91
Holy Spirit, rather than the external authority of the Church. Luther, on the one hand, insisted in the eucharistic controversy on the most literal interpretation of the words of institution against all arguments of grammar and reason ; and yet, on the other hand, he exercised the boldest subjective criticism on several books of the Old and New Testaments, especially the Epistle of James and the Epistle to the Hebrews, because he could not harmonize them with his understanding of Paul's doctrine of justification. He thus became the forerunner of the higher or literary criticism which claims the Protestant right of the fullest investigation of all tliat pertains to the origin, history, and value of the Scriptures. The Reformed Churches, especially those of the English tongue, while claiming the same right, are more cautious and conservative in the exercise of it ; they lay greater stress on the objective revelation of God than the subjective experience of man, and on historic evidence than on critical conjectures.
2. The doctrine of eternal election and providence. Zwingli gives prominence to God's sovereign election as the primary source of salvation. He developed his view in a Latin sermon, or theological discourse, on Divine Providence, at the Conference of Marburg, in October, 1529, and enlarged and published it afterwards at Zurich (Aug. 20, 1530), at the special request of Philip of Hesse.^ Luther heard the discourse, and had no objection to it, except that he disliked the Greek and Hebrew quotations, as being out of place in the pulpit. Calvin, in a familiar letter to BuUinger, justly called the essay paradoxical and immoderate. It is certainly more paradoxical than orthodox, and contains some unguarded expressions and questionable illustrations ; yet it does not go beyond Luther's book on the " Slavery of the
^ Ad ilhistr-issimiim Cattorum Principem Philippiim Sermonis df Proridentia Dei anamneina. In Opera, vol. IV. 79-144. Leo Judae published a German translation in 1531.