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

y which supernatural persons were made to appear in the air,) “an adviser
was present (whether he was black or white I do not at all remember; for it
is a dream I am telling), who said: You weakling! answer him that in Exod.
xii. 11, it is written: 'It is the Phase--that is, the Passing over of the Lord.'
On the instant that this apparition showed itself I sprung from my couch. I
first examined the passage thoroughly in the Septuagint, and preached
upon it before the whole congregation with all my strength. This sermon
dispelled the doubts of the students, who had hesitated because of the
obstacle of the parable" (that "is" meant "signify" only when a Parable
was explained). "Such a Passover of Christ was celebrated on those three
days as I never saw, and the number of those, it is thought, who look back
to the garlic and flesh-pots of Egypt is going to be far less." 374 This
narrative speaks for itself. Zwingli confesses that he came to the Scripture
to find argument for opinions already formed--opinions held, while the
search in which he was engaged for something to sustain them was still
fruitless. He claims, evidently, the character of a supernatural revelation for
his dream; and there is something inimitable in the simple egotism of his
expectation that his discovery is going to damage the cause of the
hankerers after the flesh-pots of Egypt, by which he gracefully designates
Luther and the Conservative Church of the Reformation. And yet the
passage which to Zwingli seemed so decisive does not help him in the
least. In the words, Exod. xii. 11, "It (is) the Lord's Passover," Zwingli
assumes that "it" means "the lamb," and that the sentence consequently
results: "The lamb is the Passover," that is, the lamb signifies, or is the sign
or symbol of the Passover. But 1: The word "is" is not there. This was at
once objected to Zwingli's view by those whom he styles "the brawlers"
(vitilitigatores). He meets it by maintaining that "no one, unless he be
ignorant of Hebrew, is unaware that Hua and Hayo, Hamah and Hanah,
are constantly taken for 'he is, ‘it is,' ‘they are,' where they are not
conjoined with the verb." 375 But the answer was not to the point. Zwingli
was to furnish a passage from the Word of God in
374 Zwinglii Opera. Turici. 1832. III. 841.
375 Opera. III. 844.