Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

elieve in the Church, as the custodian and infallible interpreter of the
Bible.
90
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. f148 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 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 that 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. f149 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
Bullinger, 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 Human Will,” and the first edition of Melanchthon’s
Loci, or Calvin’s more mature and careful statements. All the Reformers
were originally strong Augustinian predestinarians and denied the liberty of
the human will. Augustin and Luther proceeded from anthropological
premises, namely, the total depravity of man, and came to the doctrine of