So much on baptism. Now as to the baptism of infants, which some men today so persistently refuse to them that if they as steadfastly held aloof from contentiousness, faction, strife, evil speaking, arrogance, and impatience, no one could praise them enough. You ask whether baptized infants are damned or not, and they reply that they are not damned; and, on the other hand, if you ask whether infants are damned if not baptized, they reply that they are not damned. So you infer that infants are not included under the law, “He that believeth” (when, of course, he has heard the gospel preached) “and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned” [Mk. 16:16]; for this, you urge, was said to adults and not to those who are incapable of listening, and therefore infants cannot be cast out of the general salvation, especially those born of believing parents, for otherwise their condition would be worse than that of carnal Israel. If, then, the children of Christians are not less God’s than those of the Israelites, who would forbid their being baptized according to the words of Peter, Acts 10: 47? Yet, after all this, they do not abate their obstinacy one whit. “Therefore when I have finished these Commentaries, I shall, God willing, treat of the Baptism of Infants in a separate book.
[The preface of Zwingli’s Von den Taufe, von der Wiedertaufe und]
[von der Kinderiaufe was dated May 27, 1525.]
[18]. The Eucharist
Two years ago I wrote among sixty-seven articles one, the eighteenth, on the Eucharist, in which I wrote many things with a view rather to the times than to the thing itself. For not even Christ could praise enough the faithful steward of His word who in due season sets meat before the household of his Lord; of whom He speaks with admiration in Matt. 24: 45: “Who,” that is, how great, “18 the faithful and wise steward to whom his lord hath entrusted his household to give them food in due season?” I determined, therefore, unceasingly so to dispense the word as to reap the largest harvest for my Lord. For who would not cast off a servant who should proceed to plough the ground in the dead of winter and to sow seed in it? These things are to be done in the spring time. So I made many concessions at that time to the tender minds of those for whom I wrote, but all for their edification. After the example of Christ I distributed and kept in store as well; for after He had instituted the Eucharist, He said [Jn. 16: 12-13] that He had yet many things which must be told to the disciples, but they could not bear them then; therefore He determined to keep them until the coming of the Holy Spirit. When, therefore, kind reader, you come upon some things here which you have not seen in my earlier writings, or some things said more plainly here than elsewhere, and some things said differently, do not be astonished. I did not wish to give food when the time was unseasonable, or to cast pearls before swine [Mt. 7: 6]. Indeed, even if I could have done it without any danger, I did not wish to put things forth at a time when no one would receive them. I repeat here, therefore, what I said there, with the understanding that what I offer here, in the forty-second year of my age, shall outweigh what I offered in the fortieth, when, as I said, I wrote rather with a view to the times than to the thing itself, according to the Lord’s command that we shall do our edifying in such fashion as not to be torn to pieces by the dogs and swine at the start [cf. Mt. 7:6]. For I fear that if there is anywhere pernicious error in the adoration and wor- Auslegen und Gründe der Schlussreden.
1Zwingli was born January 1, 1484,
ship of the one true God, it is in the abuse of the Eucharist. If this had retained its proper use, according to the institution of Christ, there would not have crept in such atrocious sins against God’s people, the Church. Now we are all bent upon handling holy things, or upon having them about us—yea, I will say it plainly, upon making holy by our own merit, forsooth, things that perhaps are not holy (for everybody knows how much has been expended on the bones of the pious to provide for their worship) —rather than upon making ourselves holy. The result is that we worship with embraces and kisses wood, stones, earth, dust, shoes, vestments, rings, hats, swords, belts, bones, teeth, hair, milk, bread, quadras, tablets, wine, knives, jars, and anything that pious men have ever handled. And (most foolish thing of all) we think ourselves distinctly blessed if we have got just a look at any such thing; we promise ourselves the remission of our sins, prosperous fortune, and the whole world. But true piety, which is nothing else than blamelessness preserved through love and fear of God, we have abandoned so completely that not even among infidels do we see ordinary, that is, human, righteousness so utterly prostrate as among Christians. We have fancied that we do something worth while if we have high sentiments about holy things, though holiness has been ascribed to them by ourselves, or if we talk about them in most polished terms, and yet ourselves teem the while with all uncleanness, just like whited sepulchres [cf. Mt. 23: 27]. To be one who trusts in God and is holy—this it was to be a Christian. Let no one, then, when he hears me talking of the Eucharist, form such a judgment about me as to think that because Zwingli has said a thing it must be accepted—if, perchance, there are any who have sworn such allegiance to the man, though I fancy there are few or none. On the other hand, let no man cast aside what he sees brought from the fountainsources of the hidden things of God because he who brings them is a humble writer. I see sins committed in both these directions. In every instance judgment is to be suspended until the cause has been heard to the end and we see clearly what verdict should be pronounced.