The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

those alluded to. Such is the view, for example, of Mentzer, Gerhard,
Hoffmann, Carpzov, Walch, and Baumgarten. Among recent writers
COELLN 278 devotes a considerable part of a special treatise to the
establishing of this point, and places it beyond all reasonable doubt. It is
true that Zwingli signed the Articles of the Marburg Colloquy (1529),
which were prepared by Luther, the fourth of which treats of Original Sin,
but which shows, in common with the others, that Luther designed to
make the way to harmony of view as easy as could be consistent with
principle. In the Confession which Zwingli prepared to be presented to
Charles V. at the Diet of Worms, he says: "Whether we will, or wil. not, we
are forced to admit that original sin, as it is in the sons of Adam, is not
properly sin, as has just been explained. For it is not a deed contrary to
the law. It is, therefore, properly a disease and a condition." "Infants have
not guilt, but have the punishment and penalty of guilt, to wit, a condition
of servitude, and the state of convicts. If, therefore, it is right to call it guilt,
because it bears the inflictions of guilt, I do not object to the term." That is
he did not object to the term, provided it was clearly understood that the
term meant nothing. In his book on Baptism, Zwingli says: "There is
nothing in the children of believers, even before Baptism, which can
properly be called sin."
ALTING, the distinguished Reformed divine who wrote an,
Exegesis, Logical and Theological, of the Augsburg Confession, declares
that it is a calumny to assert that Zwingli denied that original sin is truly
sin, and says that he merely denied that it was ACTUAL sin. But if by
denying that it is actual, he merely meant that it is not a sin committed by
deed, he denied what no one affirms; but if he meant that it was not a real
sin, then he denied the very thing which, according to Alting, it is a
calumny to charge upon him. Zwingli was a patriot, and as such we admire
him, but he was, as compared with OEcolampadius, not to mention Calvin,
an exceedingly poor theologian. Justus Jonas says of him that he occupied
himself with letters in the face of the anger of the Muses and of the
unwillingness of Minerva--"Iratis Musis et
278 Confess. Melanchthonis et Zwinglii, etc., 1830.