Here, in the presence of such a mighty work of God's Spirit, it may be well to pause for a moment and contemplate the difference between the two great leaders of the Reformation, the character of their principles and action, and the consequent results. The difference has often arrested us, and sometimes we have referred to it, and as D'Aubigne, the warm-hearted champion of Luther, has noticed the difference we refer to, we may draw attention to it the more freely.
That which completely ruled Zwingle's mind, and all his teaching and actings as a Reformer, was his supreme regard for the holy scriptures. All religious observances that could not be found in, or proved by, the word of God, he boldly maintained should be abolished. His Hebrew Bible and his Greek New Testament lay on the table before him in the halls of discussion, and he would own no standard but these. Luther's principle of dealing with the old religion was of a widely different character. He desired to maintain in the church all that was not directly or expressly contrary to the scriptures. This is by no means a safe or a sound principle. It might be difficult to prove that certain things are expressly forbidden in the word of God, though it might be still more difficult to prove that they had any place in scripture. Truth is definite and positive, this dogma is loose and uncertain.
Even D'Aubigne admits that Luther rose up against those who had violently broken the images in the churches of Wittemberg, while the idols fell in the temples of Zurich by Zwingle's own direction. The German Reformer wished to remain united to the Church of Rome, and would have been content to purify it of all that was opposed to the word of God. The Zurich Reformer passed over the middle ages entirely, and reckoned nothing of absolute authority that had been written or invented since the days of the apostles. Restoration to the primitive simplicity of the church was his idea of a Reformation. There was therefore greater completeness in the mind of Zwingle as a Reformer.
Primitive Christianity had been transformed in its early days by the self-righteousness of Judaism and the paganism of the Greeks into the confusion of Roman Catholicism. The Jewish element prevailed in that part of her doctrine which relates to man—to salvation by works of human merit, or to trading in the salvation of the souls of men, as by indulgences. The pagan element prevailed especially in that which relates to God—to the innumerable false gods of popery; to the long reign of images, symbols, and ceremonies; to the dethroning of the infinitely blessed and all gracious God. "The German Reformer proclaimed the great doctrine of justification by faith, and with it inflicted a death-blow on the self-righteousness of Rome. The Reformer of Switzerland unquestionably did the same; the inability of man to save himself forms the basis of the work of all the Reformers. But Zwingle did something more: he established the sovereign, universal, and exclusive supremacy of God, and thus inflicted a deadly blow on the pagan worship of Rome."