The Christian Religion

The Wo rks of H uld reich Zwing li J pious .

They are impious who embrace the word of man as God 's .

It is, therefore , madness and utter impiety to put the enactments and decrees of certain men or certain councils upon an equality with the word of God .

For if their dicta are like God 's word, it is the word that must be embraced, not the authority of men ; if they are unlike it, they are to be rejected and shunned , as the Children of Israel avoided marriage with the women of the Moabites and other Gentiles [cf. Ezra 1 0: 2

The objection , which could be made here, that the Church should be listened to , I shall treat later . *

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

This age has many scholars who spring up everywhere as if out of the Trojan Horse , and still more who set themselves up as censors of all things . These because of their impiety are unwilling to accept the renascent word ,f yet make a pretense of piety and ﬁll the ears of the pious with groundless and ﬁcti tious suspicions .

Some , when we teach vi gorously that all our conﬁdence is to be placed in God our Father , spring up with the impudent suggestion that we must be guarded against ; for in all our teaching, they say, our aim i s that we may do away with Christ, and , after the manner of the Jews , induce all to believe in only on e Person , as we believe in only one God .

Others , when we show an inclination to attribute all things to Christ, say they are afraid that we too rashly attribute too much to Him . Yet both make their pronouncements in such a way that you can see of yourself that they are either recklessly ignorant or knowingly impious .

For they are so ignorant as to the Father, and the Son , and the Holy Spirit, in their essence , substance , divinity, power, that they do n ot know what you mean when you speak of on e and understand all three ; and their lack of knowledge is accompanied by such recklessness that what they are extremely ignorant of they all the more violently drag under suspicion . Or they are so willingly and knowingly impious that they assail with the depravity of a perverted heart what they see is done rightly and piously, and since they despair of accomplishing anything in open warfare ,

"S ee bel ow, S ecti on The Ch urch .

Ti . e., th e Reformati on .

O n Tru e a nd Fal s e R elig i o n they make an underground attack , alleging a fear that we are too much inclined sometimes towards the Father, sometimes towards the Son .

To all such I say, "ma y , "

"fare ill .

For I teach that God is to be acknowledged and embraced in such wise that whether you call Him Father , or Son , or Holy

Spirit, you always conceive of Him who is alone good, righteous , holy, kind , and all the rest .

On the other hand , when I attribute all things to the Son , I attribute them to Him wh o is what the Father is , what the Holy Spirit is , and whose are the kingdom and the power just as truly as they are the Father 's .

For He is Himself that very thing which the Father is and the Holy Spirit, though seen from a different point of view, as they say .

What, th ereforeg these emul ous persons are sure to say, namely , that in discussing piety so far I have made no reference to salvation through Christ and to grace , wi ll be groundless croaking : ﬁrst, because

's and the Holy Spirit

I cannot say everything at once and in the same place ; sec ondly, because all that I have said of the marriage of the soul to God applies to Christ just as much as to God (for Christ i s God and M an) ; ﬁnally, because knowledge of God in the nature of the case precedes knowledge of Christ .

Therefore , just as grace is ﬁrst rightly known when sin h as been effected through the law, as Paul says , Rom . that is , when si n has been weighed and known through the law, so also Christ, who is the pledge of grace , nay, is grace itself, is ﬁrst rightly

taught and known when from close observation of si n we have learned that by its interposition the way to heaven h as been closed to us .

For as he that i s in soun d health lays no store by the physician , but he that is in a desperate condition looks upon him as a g od, so Christ is n ot especially welcome to the wh ole , but to the sick he is 065; am! unxa pﬁg , that is , un ex pected safety sent from above .

To this He Himself testiﬁes, saying :

"They that are whole need not a physician ; but they that are sick , " Luke and , "I came not to call the righteous , but sinners to change their former life .

" In order , therefore , rightly to know Christ, we must ﬁrst rightly know

ourselves ; for they that think themselves righteous receive not Christ, as is clear from His own words ; and he that feels no sickness wants not the help of a physician .

Th e Wo rks of Huld reich Zwi ng li

Christ, then , i s the certainty and pledge of the grace of God [cf . Eph . 1 :

This can be shown in this way : I said before in considering man that his condition is so pitiable that he is dead , the slave of si n , and of such a nature as to care for nothing so much as for himself .

For this is what happened to him when he turned away from the good and to himself, for we kn ow that in us i s no good thing, R om

. 7 1 8.

Hence arose endless despair of ever coming to God ; for how could he ever hOpe to be received above who by daily evils felt hi mself exposed to bodily death , and from a guilty conscience felt himself so removed from God that he avoided coming into His sight ?

But God was better, and pitied His work , and devised a plan to repair so serious a misfortune .

Since His justice , being inviolably sacred , had to remain as intact and un shaken as His mercy , and since man was indeed in need

of mercy but wholly amenable to God 's justice, divine good ness found a way to satisfy justice and yet to be allowed to Open wide the arms of mercy wi thout detriment to justice .

Not that He thus took precautions against the Adversary or that the potter may not out of moistened clay make or remake any vessel He chooses [ cf . Rom . 9 : but that by this example of justice He might remove drowsiness and sloth from us and show us what sort of being He was —just, good, merciful ; or, not to presume to say too much of His purposes , because it so pleased Him .

For "righteous [justus] is the Lord and upright are his judgments , Ps . 1 1 9 : 1 37, but, on the other hand ,

"He is patient and merciful , good to all ; and his tender mercies are " Ps . 1 45 : 8—9 .

For David sings unto Him over all his works, "visits the iniquity of mercy and judgment, Ps . 1 01 : 1

For He of the fathers upon the children unto the fourth generation of them that hate him , and sheweth mercy unto thousands of them that love him , " Exod . 20: 5 -6 . While , therefore , God is

" k alike just and merciful , though with a leaning towards mercy ( for His tender mercies are over all the rest of His works) , yet His justice h as to be satisﬁed that His wrath may be appeased .

That, then , God 's justice h as to be satis ﬁed , the theologians have rightly taught, even those of the "if thou wouldst enter into life , keep the commandments , new school .

For, " Matt . 1 9 : 1 7 . But how shall man satisfy the

The Wo rks Of H uld reich Zwi ng li

of himself, to aspire to the companionship of God ?

Thus it becomes manifest that wherever in the Scriptures the way to heaven i s shown , we are driven to despair .

For wh o in this polluted path below can so order his life as to be able to think himself even i n his own opinion worthy of dwelling with and enjoying so pure a light, especially when we have all strayed and become so unproﬁtable that not even on e of us does good, when every man i s a liar [ cf . Ps . 1 1 6 : 1 1 ; Rom . and we are all hypocrites and have all sinned and fallen short of th e glory of God [ cf . Rom .

But since hypocrisy is such a mighty evil that, like certain foolish sufferers who try to hide their ailment, it ventures to deny itself and tries, though in vain , to clear itself Of all suspi cion , it is necessary for us , after the fashion of skilful physi eiaus, who wrest out the truth by means of various attendant circumstances and symptoms, in the same way to probe and to examine man until we turn his bold concealment into shame and frank confession .

For certain clever sick persons, in order to try the skill of the physician , refuse to tell the nature of their disease until the physician pron ounces them to be suffer ing from the very ailment of which they are themselves per fectly aware .

Then they entrust themselves more securely to his care, convinced that as he knows the disease so well he will know the cure also .

But those who are a prey to obstinate hypocrisy can never be persuaded by the most skilful argument to confess what they really feel and have in their hearts .

Yet the more persistently they refuse , the more certainly are they understood by the spiritual physician . For "he that is spiritual judgeth all things " [I Cor . 2 :

For in order to make them confess what is discovered by the principles of spiritual medi cine , there is need of another than a man , however expert .

For man looks on the outward appearance , and God alone on the heart [I Sam . 1 6 :

Unless He excites shame in the human heart, so that it ceases to deny that of which it is conscious , and unless He so humbles it that it recognizes its eagerness for glory, it will never confess that it i s such as it really is . For no one tries to descend into his secret self, n o one .

We come again , therefore , to the conclusion that man has as much need

of God for the knowledge of himself as for the recognition of

O n Tru e and Fal s e R elig i on God .

For no man knoweth the things Of a man , save the spirit of the man , which is in him

" [I Cor . 2 : as was made plain above .

But n ow I turn to tests by which to wrest from man th e admission that he has in him what I assert is in him .

I ask , therefore , ﬁrst :

"0 thou who art justiﬁed by thy works , is almsgiving a good work or not ?

The self -righteous answers, " The self righteous :

"In whatever way and manner it is done ?

"It is .

"Not at all , but only when a man does as is in him "Tell me , please , what you understand by the expression ( for that is the way these people talk)

'as is in The self righteous :

I answer that we beg the question in this way .

For whatever the amount given and on whatever accoun t, a man always does as is in him and always does according to his ability . Therefore all almsgiving will be a good work which will justify us . The self

"According to his powers .

"Yes .

-righteous :

"If I give to be seen Of men [ cf . Mt . 6 : 1 ] The self -righteous :

I do not say that .

"I will not argue the point .

The self "

"What, then ?

-righteous :

" There you see what this " as is in him is . It is a ﬁgment that makes Christ quite superﬂuous . For in

this way anybody coul d be justiﬁed by works done according to his powers ; for anybody can do as is in him , even if in the case of many of his good deeds that be the merest triﬂe .

But I come back to the main point . As many maladies can befall almsgiving to vitiate it as befall vineyards to destroy them .

First, if the giving is not in the name of God . Those, therefore , who give only for the purpose Of redeeming themselves from the punishments of hell , give in their own name , not in the name of Christ .

Second, if people give with ostentation , that they may Obtain glory among men , they have received their reward , Matt . 6 : 2 . Furthermore , if they give grudgingly and di slike to give , and woul d not give unless they were afraid of "for God loveth a cheerful giver, mal icious comment , they vitiate their almsgiving ; " II Cor . 9 : 7

. If they do n ot give in the measure they would want given to them if they were in need , they do not give rightly ; for "all things that ye would that men should do unto you , do ye the same to them ,

" Matt . 7: 1 2 .

Nor if they give scornfully or negligently ; for "cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently, Jer . 48 : 1 0.

Nor

1 04 The Works Of H uld reich Zwi ng li if they give because overcome by the wretchedness and misfor tun es Of the recipient and n ot from the love of God and their neighbor ; for "whoso hath this world 's goods, and seeth hi s brother have need, we know that the love Of God is not in hi m ,

I John 3 : 1 7 . In short, so many vices are wont to attend this quite unquestionable work, that we must not expect any on e to be able worthily to perform it .

For who does n ot give in such fashion as to keep the greater portion for himself ? Who does not give either to be seen to have given or not to be seen not to have given , etc . ?

How, then , shall we satisfy God 's justice if so pious a work i s ~ don e by none in such a way that it can be reckoned worthy Of reward by an impartial and pious judge ?

Run through in this way all the things we do , and you will see that they are subject to as great, aye, to greater , vices .

Many of us pray, that we may be seen to pray , as th e hypo crites do, Matt . 6 : 5 . We pray that the Lord will give us riches, pleasures , a wife with a large dowry, honors , ofﬁce , power ; aye , that we may be deemed saints and even gods by all men ; and ,

" Rom .

We fast in the same way, either that our frugality may be heralded [ cf "we know not what we should pray for, in fact, . Mt . 6 : or that our thin , pale faces may indicate sanctity ; or that dainties and delicacies may be brought to us fasting ; or to bring back within an Old garment a belly that makes too shameless a show Of itself ; or to save a penny , as is the case with some who are meaner than Ch remes and Eu cli o* ; or that we may reckon as a good work the fasting which ought to be done simply for the purpose of calling us away from the ﬂesh to the b etter hearing of the voice and bidding of the Spirit . Thus , I say, we measure all things with reference to ourselves, not to Him of whom and in whom we wholly are [cf. Acts By what sacriﬁces or Offerings , then , shall we be justiﬁed , when in our actual works we are so feeble and cold and ineffective ; and this so evidently and truly that all the faithful know in their hearts it is just as I have said ? For they see that this kind of disease h as come to us from Adam , the original cause of this state of death ; and they not only see it in the word , but in their hearts feel it true .

Here , I say, the theologians have wandered from the "Two mi s ers, well known cha racters i n Roman comedy

Th e Wo rks of Huld reich Zwi ng li

to be treated with the greatest reverence, the greatest humility and awe, we must prostrate ourselves before the Fount of all grace , that He may so gui de, so il lumine , our discourse that we shall say nothing unworthy of Him .

And since by human discourse, however rich , the untaught mind cannot be per suaded in the things of faith unless the Lord so teach and draw the heart that it delights to follow, we must also appeal to Him wh o justiﬁeth and wh o calleth the things that are not as though they were [Rom . so to illumine the minds of those to whom we would communicate His gospel that they shall be able to grasp the meaning of the gospel , so to draw and to soften their hearts that they shall be able to follow .

For there i s nothing that He will not grant to earnest prayer [ cf .

Mt . 21 : 22] and there is nothing that we ought to venture or to undertake to do without prayer .

May the Lord put right words into my mouth !

Wishing at length , then , to help this desperate case of ours , our Creator sent one to satisfy His justice by Offering

Himself for us— not an angel , n or a man , but His own Son , and clothed in ﬂesh , in order that neither His majesty might deter us from intercourse with Him , nor His lowliness deprive

us Of hope . For, being God and the Son of God, He that was sent as deputy and mediator gives support to hope .

For what cannot He do or have who i s God ? Moreover , being man , He promises friendship and intimacy— aye, the common bond of relationship ; what, then , can He refuse wh o is a brother and the sharer of our weakness ? Furthermore , this thing so strange and so unprecedented was conceived and prepared from the beginning of human misery . For as God created man through His Son , so He determined through Him to restore man when he had fallen into death , that the Son might be at once his creator and his restorer .

For "all things were made through him , " John 1 : 3 and Colos . 1 : 1 6 "All things have been created through him , and unto

' him ; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist . And he is the head of the body, the church : who is the beginning , the ﬁrstborn from the dead ; that in all things he might have the preeminence . For 6 0561010 6 , it was his good pleasure , that in him should all the fulness dwell ; and through him to reconcile all things unto

O n Tru e a nd Fal s e R elig i on himself, having through the blood of the cross made peace

Eph ae.

Through him we both for all things, whether they be in heaven or on earth .

" (Jews and Gentiles) "have access in on e Spirit unto the Father .

" God , then— to go back to the beginning— took pity upon man right after his fall , and when He promulgated the decision of His just judgment

He took Off something from the hardness Of the sentence, that man might not be in utter misery forever .

For when He appointed the punishment of the serpent, He made this quali ﬁcati on , in the interest Of man : He foretold that there should sometime be seed Of the woman that should bruise the head

"I will put enmity between thee and the woman , and between thy seed and her seed : it shall bruise thy head , and thou shalt bruise his heel . of the real serpent, the Devil , saying :

For this is the real meaning Of the Hebrew, as can easily be perceived from the two pronouns , " which in the Hebrew are both masculine and refer to " and "his , "it " which likewise is masculine .

Hence the Septuagint rendered the statement thus : Odium sive i nimi citi am ponam inter te et inter m uli erem ,

"seed, et inter te et inter semen tuum et inter semen eius . Ipse tuum caput Observabit, et tu Observabi s calcaneum eius [Hatred or enmity will I put between thee and the woman , and between thee and thy seed and her seed . He shall mark thy head , and thou shalt mark his heel] . Here we see plainly that the holy men understood that there was a mystery underlying thes e words , and therefore refused to change the gender of the words ,

"z aera though they might properly have done so .

For " [seed] , is masculine in Hebrew ; so also are [pm] , that is, "semen " [ mm] , i . e. , " [he] , and " [ t ] , i . e. , "eius "h u "ipse "u " [his] .

Not so in Greek ; for there o qrépp a [seed] is neuter , like the Latin "

"semen "

"ipse ; but a im): and i . e. , " are mascul ine .

Hence they might have said :

"eius , and "Ipsum ( referring, of course , to "semen ") ob servabit caput tuum , et tu Observabi s, etc .

" But, as I said , seeing that there was a mystery concealed here , they refused to change the gender in the pronouns , though they had to change it in * however, is everywhere so bold a wépya . The Latin translator, 'Th e transl ato r of th e Vulg ate, which reads :

Inimi citi a s p onam i nter te et muli er em , et s emen tu um et semen i lli ns ; ips a conteret caput tuum, et tu i nsidi aberi s calcaneo eju s .

1 08 The Works of H uld reich Zwi ng li that I Often wonder whether his learning or his boldness was the greater .

I come back to the meaning .

We see it openly foretold in these words of God that from the woman shoul d sometime proceed the seed which should brui se the head of the serpent, i . e. , the Devil ; and that, on the other hand , the Devil would try to hurt hi s heel .

Let us , therefore, consider brieﬂy both prophecies .

Divine Providence preserved strict verbal propriety . Having ﬁrst said, "

"The seed shall brui se thy head , " For when He said to Abraham , "seed .

He always uses the same word, "In thy seed shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed, " Gen .

He used the Old word for him wh o was to be born of Abraham according to the ﬂesh and was to enroll all the race of men among the heirs of God . His calling him " in Jeremiah 23 : 5 amounts to the same thing . And Paul , speaking Of the same promise , says plainly :

"a branch "And to thy seed , which is Christ, " Gal . 3 : 1 6 , bearing witness that the seed of which so much is said throughout the Old Testament i s

Christ .

Therefore this seed, Christ, crushed the head Of the Devil .

But the Devil himself tried so hard to hurt His heel , i . e. , his humanity, from vexation that it was not subject to the fall , like ours , which is conceived i n

' si n , that he never let an Opportunity slip . When Christ had marvelously sustained a fast for forty days and nights,even in the desert, the Devil demanded that he turn the stones into bread, hoping that his teeth and throat would lure him to this . Then he tempted him through the desire for power and wealth , and ﬁnally for glory

[ cf . Mt . 4 : 1

When b e accomplished nothing, he armed all his forces and marched out against Him .

He roused the hatred of the scribes and priests against him to such a pitch that, in the words Of Paul , Rom . they were absolutely 'yo t da 1r01z50 t civekefmoves, that is , Without any human kindness, friendliness , fellow-feeling, or mercifulness towards

Him . And, not satisﬁed with having put such a load of hatred upon Him , he determined to destroy Him utterly ; for he feared

'i a c 'rop 'more each day, seeing His unwavering devotion to the truth in His teachings and His unfailing power in healing disease . Daily he added fuel to the ﬁre Of malice , until he drove his aforementioned minions, the for his own kingdom more and "An error for Gen . 22 : 18.

1 1 0 Th e Wo rks of Huld reich Zwing li happy through His sorrows , wise through His foolishness (

"for the preaching Of the cross i s to them that perish foolishness , "

I Cor . gods through His poverty .

The author of death reached forth his hand to the deadly apple ; the author of life reached forth His hand to the saving wood of the cross .

The sweetness tasted by the on e brought death ; the bitter ness tasted by the other brought life .

The on e ﬂed in the hope Of hiding himself, for he was afraid to come into the sight

Of God . The other displayed Himself to the whole world , and submitted to the judgment and the vi olence of the vilest, in order to recover the lost heritage . He suffered Himself to seem a malefactor in all men 's eyes, that through Him we might appear justiﬁed u nto the Father .

Through a tree we were bound over to slavery, because Adam was not willing to stay hi s hand ; through a tree we were given to liberty, because Christ was willing to suffer anything rather than permit our rui n . For on e of the ancient writers says :

"He marked the tree at that time as the thing to do away with the damage of the tree "

; showing that God at the very moment of death 's origin had in view the healing by means Of a tree of the disease result ing from a tree .

God laughed at the transgression of Adam , and clothed him and his wife with the skins of brutes .

's Obedience turned us from brutes into sons of God , and enwrapped us in a mantle of blessed immortality . So far are we from being scorned in the sight of God that we have

Christ even been made His heirs, and joint-heirs with Christ [Rom .

8 :

In short, the recklessness of our ﬁrst parent closed the gates of paradise ; the humility of Christ Opened the door of heaven . I pass over St . Paul -21 , which all aim to make us see how our ills have been healed by 's comparisons in Rom . 5 : 1 5 corresponding remedies , and how the divine justice has been appeased for us by the righteousness of Christ alone .

For His innocence , given to us, h as become as much ours as the life which also we derived from Him .

For "in him was life , John

" John 1 4 : 6 , and in him we live , and move , and have our being , ° 4 . He is "the way, the truth , and the life ,

" Acts 1 7: 28.

As life , I say, was given to us from Him , so also was righteous ness , which has been made ours from Him and through Him ; for from Him we are all that we are . He put on ﬂesh that He

O n T ru e and Fals e Relig i o n might become ours . He had no need of it, but we had the great est need Of Him .

To become one of us , therefore , He , great God that He is , just , holy , merciful , Creator, became man , that we through His fellowship might be raised to gods .

There are also countless other prophecies in the Old Testa ment which so perfectly set forth His coming , career , death , and in fact His whole life and activity , that no on e can deny that He is thus foreshadowed in the Scriptures , His whole activity and teaching correspond so completely with them . But since these prophecies are familiar to all , such as Isa . 1 1 : 1 -2 ;

Jer . 23 : 5

-6 , I will refrain from citing them here and content myself with citing a few ﬁgures or types .

Jacob went into Mesopotamia [Gen . 28ff] , and found there two wives , the elder of whom was dull -eyed , the younger of glad and beautiful countenance [Gen .

The elder bore many children , while the younger was persistently barren . By and by the mis fortune of her barrenness was changed , and the younger also began to be a mother . What could this presage but that which

we see fulﬁlled in Christ and the Church ?

The synagogue of the Jews was for a long time fruitful before Christ was clothed with ﬂesh ; but after the time foreordained of God was fulﬁlled , the synagogue became barren and the young church of the Gentiles became fruitful .

Jacob returned from Mesopotamia [Gen . 31 ff] taking with him much substance , two wives , many children . Christ came down into this world , God became man , so that in Him you recognize Mesopotamia between its rivers , i . e. , the two natures , according to which He wrought and suf fered all things , ever keeping the boundaries of each intact , faithfully performed the work of His Father , and at length , victorious over death , brought back the whole race of men to heaven . Why should I speak Of the selling of Joseph into Egypt ?

He is such a shining example among the clearest foreshadow 's brush . And why speak of h is great ings that he needs no painter -grandfather , Abraham , whose faith i s so proclaimed by God [Gen . 22 : 1 6 -1 8] that he is easily seen to be happier than any Alexander or Achilles ?

For who ever had God as herald ?

Why, I say , should I speak of hi s rearing a son by his free wife when he was a hundred years Old , seeing that Paul in writing to the Galatians , 3 and 4 , paints him as prototype i n such

The Works of Huldreich Zwing li

lights and shadows that you can fairly touch him ? Perez and Zerah, born of Tamar [Gen . intimated the same thing . It would be tedious to enumerate all the preﬁg urati ons, since Paul says that all things happened unto them by way of example, I Cor .

He, then , through whom we were all created [I Cor . 8 : and through whom it pleased God to recreate and renew the world, was, when the time seemed to Him ripe, conceived in the womb Of a spotless virgin without any male aid, by the fructi ﬁcati on of the Holy Spirit ( for He wh o was to be born thence was sent to make spiritual beings out of ﬂeshly) , and began His human life . Read Luke Chaps . 1 and 2 , and Matthew 1 , and John 1 , that I may n ot have to busy myself here with such well-known facts .

Christ had to be born of a virgin * on two accounts : ﬁrst, because His divine nature could n ot suffer that any stain of sin attach to it, as h as been said above .

For God is so thoroughly light, purity, innocence, goodness , that He cannot endure any thing that i s in any respect dark , impure, deﬁl ed, or evil .

Therefore the birth had to be abso l utely pure of every stain , because He that was born was also

God . Second , on account Of the nature Of the sacriﬁcial victim .

For that had to be free from all blemish , as the law of Moses required, though that applied only to purity Of ﬂesh , Heb . 9 : 9 .

How much more had that victim to be absolutely spotless which made atonement for the sins n ot only of all who had been , but Of all who were yet to come !

And this could not have been unless He had been born of a virgin , and without male inter venti on .

For if the virgin had conceived from the seed of a man , would not the birth have been thereby polluted ? And if a woman who had before known a man had conceived Him , even from the Holy Spirit , wh o would ever have believed that the child that was born was of the Holy Spirit?

For nature knows no birth that is not besmirched with stain . For , "Behold , I was shapen in iniquity ; and in sin did my mother conceive me , " Ps .

Virgin , therefore , she had to be , and ever

virgin , too, who sh ould bear Him in whom there could be not even the least suspicion of a blemish , much less any real blemish .

Now I add evidence Of these things .

That He is a

* Cf. Zwi ngli ' s Ei n c Pr edi g t von d er Ewi g r ei nen M a gd M a ri a .

1 1 4 Th e Wo rks Of H uld reich Zwi ng li remaining a virgin is ever vi rgin ; otherwise she woul d not remain a virgin .

And this Ezekiel ﬁnely indicates , saying "Thi s gate shall be shut ; it shall not be Opened , neither shall any man enter in by it ; because the Lord , the God of Israel , hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut for the prince .

The objections that could be raised here as to the meaning because of the circumstances can be so easily removed that one aiming at brevity must not delay over them ; for

"all things happened unto them by way of example , etc .

False religion slips up , therefore , when she snarls out that the perpetual virginity does not hold unless it be conﬁrmed by the decrees of the Popes . For, as they cannot by their decrees make her that is deﬁl ed undeﬁled, so they could n ot with these suspi

's reproach by decreeing that sh e is ever virgin .

For unless sh e were virgin in her own quality, they could not make her virgin by their decrees .

Her virginity is based on the fact, n ot on the decrees of men . ci ous dicta of theirs remedy the Virgin

The ever virgin , then , brought forth Christ, God 's Son and hers, while on a journey to Bethlehem , according to the predic tions of the prophets, Mic . 5 : 2 , Matt .

2 : 6 , Luke 2 : 7, and laid her babe in a manger, because there was no room in the inn on account of the crowd of people who had then gathered there to be taxed .

Thus Divine Providence ordained that as Adam by sinning had made himself naked and exposed himself to need , so Christ, that the divine justice might be appeased, should experience want, cold, and all the ills that had been brought upon man for his si n .

For this was required by justice , that He through whom we were all created, in whom

there is no si n , and from whom we had gone astray , should , though innocent, bear what we had deserved through sinning,

"he did no si n , neither was guile found in his mouth but bear it for us . For " [I Pet .

What He bore , He bore for us .

He needed nothing, but was made needy for us , that we might enjoy His riches . In like manner, He who was to be the food of the soul was laid where the cattle fed , that we might in the very beginning see that He was to be our food who without the knowledge of God are n othing but beasts— the food by which we should be made Of the Spirit . He is exposed to the harshness of winter who clothes the ﬂowers of the ﬁeld more

O n Tru e a nd Fals e R elig i o n richly than any Solomon [Lk . who feedeth the ravens [Lk . and giveth sustenance to the beasts [Ps .

1 47 And He is born in a place where a multitude of people had assembled .

For He is to belong to all ; and He i s born in a manger, while we snore on downy couches . For He is the true shepherd , who ever watcheth over His ﬂock .

He is circum ci sed on the eighth day, though unless circumcision had looked forward to Him it would have proﬁted nothing .

And He is given a name which is above every name [Phil . and which fully signiﬁes just what Christ is . For He is the Savior , and is called Jesus [Lk . for the very reason that He is nothing else than Savior , for He saves the people from their sins .

He grows in years and knowledge [Lk . that we may recognize His true humanity .

He i s accepted by Simeon and Anna [Lk . 2 : 25

-38] and is proclaimed to be the light of salvation unto all nations , that His divinity also may be seen

At twelve years of age, unto the same end he sits in the midst of the doctors , talks with them , vanquishes and confutes them

[Lk .

And straightway, that we may not doubt His true humanity, He goes down wi th His mother and foster father to Nazareth and is subject to them [Lk . 2 :

And He is so entirely subject that, following the trade of his foster father , He at length wins for Himself so famous a name in it that men say [M k . oﬁf ég éO "IS 11 01: this the carpenter ?

' T l-V 6 f éxr wp , " And when He h as reached the fulness of His time , so that He is presently to be taken up from the earth ,

He so proves Himself in every way the Son of God, both by His teaching and by doing wonderful miracles , that n ot only men but even demons against their will are forced to confess that He is the Son of God [M k . 1 :

Now He feeds hungry crowds on a few loaves [M k .

6 : again , He gives as drink water turned into wine [Jn . 2 : 1 cleanses leprosy , drives away disease , quenches fever ; endows the blind with sight , the lame with power to walk , the palsied with movement ; straightens the crooked , restores the dead to life with a word

[M t. 1 1 : 4

-6] and there are no ills at all of body or mind so deep -set that He does not take them away . But when He boldly uncovers the deceits and schemes of the hypocrites , then wick edn ess, which like an owl cannot endure coming into the light ,

1 1 6 Th e Wo rks of H uld reich Zwing li resists , as is its nature , and ﬁnds a way to save its reputation though at the loss of its soul .

They determine, therefore , to slay Christ the innocent Son of God and the V irgin , caring nothing h ow much hurt they did their consciences , provided they could make the simple believe that they were just persons, and that Christ was the wicked on e, in that He had unjustly heaped abuse upon the just . And since the power of trial had been taken from them , they found a way of bringing accusation against Him before the governor .

But, lest some thing should intervene to prevent Hi s being taken , or He should escape when taken , they made it their business to take

Him themselves , thinking His destruction more certain if they brought Him in person than if they made information against Him in His absence .

Having , therefore , taken Him they brought Him before the governor , and accused Him of less majesté, declaring that He had forbidden the giving Of tribute to Caesar [Lk . 23 :

And in order to arouse the enmity Of the rabble also against Him , they suborned false witnesses to allege that He had said He had power to destroy the Temple and to build it up again in three days [M t . 26 :

In this way they hoped that, even if they found the magistrate pretty ﬁrm , Hi s death could , nevertheless, be accomplished through the uproar and shoutings of the degraded rabble .

And this i s what happened . For the magistrate , as he repeatedly confessed , found no cause of condemnation in Him [Lk .

1 4, though he made many attempts ; yet, not daring to acqui t Him , gave Him over to the madness of His accusers .

There fore did wickedness maltreat innocence, iniquity righteousness , the limbs of Satan God , traitors the champion of peace , ingrati tude its benefactor, murderers the incarnation Of life , parri cides their deliverer ; and did so spit upon , bruise , and buffet

Him , so tear Him with thorns and scourges from the top of His head to the soles of His feet, and so utterly trample upon Him , that pitying children and women could not restrain their tears at His woe [Lk .

But He , no way crushed b v these ills , no way angered , yet warned His murderers of the ills they were calling down upon themselves by a wrong so atrocious .

They, therefore , inﬂicted the most ign oble punish ment upon Him , nailing to the cross along with murderers

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