to the mind of man[1]. These, and many other points will strike any one who, having familiarized himself with the language and manner of Zuingli, shall afterwards read Calvin's treatise, so that one seems to be reading Zuingli again, only in a different form. Nor is it, of course, any disparagement to Calvin, that a system of doctrinal theology, written at the age of twenty-seven, should have been worked up from materials furnished by others. Only, as others also have observed, Calvin as well as Zuingli is inconsistent; and whether it be that the tenets of his early years in part break through a system later acquired; or whether, as is probable, he shrunk from the consequences of his own scheme, yet certainly he occasionally uses stronger language than belongs to that system[2]. Here and there he even criticizes language, which resembles that of Zuingli; and (which alone appears to present any real difference in their systems) Zuingli explicitly denies[3] that Sacraments confirm faith; Calvin asserts it[4]. Yet the difference is again in words; for both assert that the contemplation of God's mercy, as represented in the Sacraments, is a mean of confirming and strengthening our faith; and both deny that the Sacraments convey, or are vehicles of grace. Yet between these there is no third system. Indeed, all reformed writers, until of late date, have acknowledged Zuingli as authority for their opinions, equally with Calvin. He was as much, or more, looked up to in his day, by those of that school: nor had it been worth noticing, but that moderns have been inclined to set Zuingli aside, because he speaks out, and shews the effects and character of their theory more plainly than Calvin; or have been misled to draw an unauthorized distinction between them.
If, however, there be any difference in the modes of statement
- ↑ Inst 4. 14. 5, 6. 12. cp. P. Martyr, Loci, 4. 7. 3.
- ↑ Witsius, however, notices another source, which I was unwilling, upon my own impression alone, to name, viz, that Calvin uses one language in controversy, another, when tranquilly, explaining Scripture. "Tantum sæpe interest utrum quis cum adversario contendat, an libero animo commentetur." De Bapt. § 39.
- ↑ De Baptismo. f. 65.
- ↑ Institt. 4. 14. 9.
