A second pair of inferences also follows. First, they teach incautiously who say that the baptism of infants can be tolerated through love, unless they mean that by love all things are done among Christians, and not by command and by force of law, just as Paul says: Owe no one aught, but to love one another. But if they receive love in the place of complaisance and indulgence, as when Paul through love sheared his hair and undertook a vow (for he did this by indulgence in which he spared the weak), now I think they err seriously who say that through love infants should be baptized. For what do they mean by this other than that now one may not omit for the sake of public peace what some time must be omitted when it is permitted? Let them therefore receive my opinion after considering the distinction of love which I premise. Few ceremonies have been left us by Christ—two or three, baptism, the eucharist and the laying on of hands. The first belongs in general to all who are of Christ’s church. The second to those only who can interrogate them- selves upon their certitude of faith. For the apostle says: Leta man prove himself. The third only to a few, those who superin- tend the ministry of the word. Now since these ceremonies have clear methods of performance they are improperly said to be done of love when they are done of precept, even though what- ever God commands is most pleasing to you because of your piety. So when it is said: Go and teach all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, there is here the form of law as much as in “ Let every male be circum- cised.’” What the law orders cannot be ascribed to indulgence, but that is done of indulgence when at the celebration of the eucharist certain weak ones are spared, and would be so done if the habit of baptizing infants were being restored and certain weak ones were spared from being compelled to baptize infants after the custom and rite. This, I say, would be done of love.
REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 247 The eucharist therefore is not celebrated from love in this way, but it is stopped out of love by many. So it would be with baptism. I warn you here, dearest brethren, to weigh again and again my opinion, for some seem to wish to cover up with their astuteness of words the mouth of your simplicity.
The second necessary inference of the second pair. Whether the Catabaptists or others receive or not my opinion on election, predestination, calling and faith—which assuredly is not mine, but the apostle Paul’s, nay, that of God himself, if you estimate carefully the providence of God—still baptism is not at all to be denied infants on account of God’s election or reprobation, for neither to Esau or any other who was rejected was circumcision denied. So I regard the whole Catabaptist argument as now overturned, and it is demonstrated that election is above baptism, circumcision, faith and preaching.
That the Apostles Baptized Infants.
In the foregoing I said that when Christ and the apostles referred to Scripture, they referred to none other than that of the law and the prophets. For not yet were the Gospels written or the apostolic epistles collected. But in this I would not speak as if I would take aught away from the canonical New Testament, since the books of the Old Testament also were not written at one time, and yet the authority of the later books is not less; but I would show that Catabaptist writers are in error in this, that they suppose the apostles to have directed baptism in accordance with that writing that was not yet written. Nay, they order to be omitted what is verbally omitted in what was written afterward in accordance with the figurative scheme of the Hebrew tongue, but what is affirmed by the implications of speech. Meanwhile the thing itself warns otherwise, and the men who wrote the New Testament testify that they were not able to record all that Christ himself did and taught. I have undertaken to prove a hard thing then, the Catabaptists think, but it is easy if we give 248 ZWINGLI SELECTIONS.
ear to the truth. I shall first employ argument and then testi- mony. But the arguments I draw from no source but Scripture itself, as follows: Every one knows how sharp was the contest among believers about circumcision, which contest is described in Acts xv.; some contended that those must be circumcised who were not entered into Christ, others opposing. But when there had arisen a great strife the delegates from Antioch, the apostles, and the whole church guided by the divine Spirit de- creed that circumcision and all the externals of the law, a few exceptions being made in concession to the weak, should be abrogated. Here then I will ask the Catabaptists whether they believe the disciples were less solicitous about administering the baptismal rite than about circumcision? If they say that they were not solicitous, then the piety of the parents which has regard for the children as well as for themselves leads us to think other- wise. Since then a part were anxious that circumcision should not be omitted, a part that they might not confuse baptism, it appears that they were no less anxious for their children than for themselves, especially since in the beginning their infants had been circumcised. It cannot be then that if the apostles were unwilling to baptize the children there would not have arisen some disturbance. But nothing is said of this, so there was no disturbance. So because of believers’ opinions children were baptized, and for this reason there is no distinct mention of it. But if they admit that parents were anxious about the baptism of their children, then they conquered and baptized them, for bap- tism conquered and remained when circumcision became anti- quated. For if consideration, strife and anxiety did arise, and yet the opinion of those who thought they ought to be baptized did not conquer, then circumcision would have been strength- ened and baptism weakened. And this argument pertains to conjectures and indications, yet it is drawn from Scripture.
II. But the second argument is insuperable, gathered by com- parison of Scripture. Circumcision was abrogated by decree of REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 249 the church gathered in the spirit. Infants were with their parents within the church. If then, according to the Catabaptists’ opinion, those infants or little children were not baptized, yet were circumcised, it follows that by a decree of the church children of Christians were cast out of the church and were remanded to the circumcision. For who is circumcised becomes a debtor to the whole law. And there is no reason why we should plead here that account must be taken of the time. For the strife about circumcising believers arose at Antioch, not at Jeru- salem, where it is agreed that either circumcision or baptism flourished.
Ill. The third argument also is from conjecture—that we should consider the race from which the first believers came. They were of a race that so clung to externals that the apostles believed even after the resurrection that Christ would rule cor- poreally. It is not therefore likely that they left their children unbaptized. I leave the rest to you, reader, for much can be educed from these bases.
IV. The fourth I have touched on in the foregoing, 7. e., that Paul in 1 Cor. x. 1-2 makes us and the Hebrews equal. All, he says, were baptized, all ate the same spiritual bread, and since all their children were baptized in the sea and the cloud they would not be equal if our children were not baptized, as has been said. But here the Catabaptists chatter out: If they ate the same spiritual bread, therefore our children will also celebrate the eucharist. This has no weight, for by synecdoche to each part its own property is attributed. But since we have a precept for the celebration of the eucharist: Let each man prove himself, and boys are not competent for this, while they are for baptism and circumcision, it is clear that with Paul infant baptism was in use, but not infant eucharist. Here also is answered the objec- tion they draw from Col. ii. 11, that children cannot be circum- cised with the circumcision not made with hands nor lay aside the body of sin, therefore baptism did not come in the place of 17 250 ZWINGLI SELECTIONS.
‘circumcision, since circumcision is external and corporeal, but this is internal and spiritual. For we learn here that Paul -attributed our externals to the Hebrews, though they had the internals alone, but the externals not in the same form but ‘differently. No one denies that they ate spiritual bread just as ‘we, for they, like we, were saved through him who was to come. But they did not carry around the bread and wine in the supper, but used other externals in place of these, manna and water from the rock. Do you see how by analogy he makes the externals equivalents? The internals were the same, the externals differ- ent. So he attributes to them that internal baptism, so that they as well as we were cleansed through Christ; external baptism he expresses by the analogy of the sea and the cloud, but to us he attributes internal circumcision, for we are under the same cove- nant with them and are renewed by the same Spirit, and by it are circumcised. That is, he is speaking by synecdoche in accordance with the age of each class. But he found no other external than baptism, for what cause would there be for making a comparison analogically between baptism and circumcision, when without that he could have spoken of the spirit being renewed, unless he had wished in the same way to make equal the internals as well as the externals, as he did in 1 Cor. x. 1? It must be therefore that Paul entertained this opinion, that our circumcision is baptism; this he would never have held unless he had seen at that time the children of Christians baptized as he had formerly seen them circumcised.
V. Not only three, as above, but many families were baptized by the apostles, in which it is more likely than not that there were infants. This, too, pertains to probability, about which enough has been said above. | Now we come to testimony. You will put together here, good reader, whatever has been said of one and the same testament, people and Saviour. And you will at the same time consider here that in the apostles’ time no one used any Scripture but the REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 251 Old Testament, nay, Christ himself used no other, and what controversy arose about baptism would have to be settled by its authority; but since this not even leads us to think anything but that baptism, the sign of the covenant, must be given to infants equally with circumcision, there could have been no hesitation with the apostles in approving the baptism of infants.
Origen on Romans, book v., thus testifies: “ The church received from the apostles the tradition of giving baptism even to infants.” * Augustine asserts the same in his book on the baptism of infants dedicated to Marcellinus.t I do not adduce these in this place to give them the authority of Scripture, but on account of faith in history (for Origen flourished about 150 years after the ascension of Christ), that we may not ignore the antiquity of infant baptism, and at the same time that we may attain to cer- tainty that beyond all controversy the apostles baptized infants. So the Catabaptists do nothing at all different from the false apostles in former tmes, of whom Paul thus speaks: They order you to be circumcised for this only, that they may glory in your flesh. So these men glory in mobs and their seditious, or rather heretical, church. For I assert truly that in our time no dogma, however unheard of, can so rightly be called heresy as this sect’s, for they have separated themselves from the churches of believers, they have rebaptized, and have their own assemblages. Now I lay my hand to the appendix.
APPENDIX.
Though I ever expend most liberally what little talent the Lord has given me, I am compelled to restrain my hand in the appendix, not out of niggardliness, but because you are already wearied, good reader, of so great prolixity, and because I am * Book v., chap. ix.
t A treatise on the merits and forgiveness of sins, and on the baptism of infants. Migne, x., col. 109 sqq. Eng. trans. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, v., 15-200.
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compelled to yield to the importunity of the Fair that presses.* With the help of God then I will refute the foolish, impious and absurd arguments advanced by the Catabaptists, a few passages of Scripture being adduced, but such as that whole crowd cannot resist.
I. The Catabaptists teach that the dead sleep, both body and soul, until the day of judgment, because they do not know that “sleeping” is used by the Hebrews for “ dying.’’ Then they do not consider that the soul is a spirit, which, so far from being able to sleep or die, is nothing but the animating principle of all that breathes, whether that gross and sensation-possessing spirit that quickens and raises up the body, or that celestial spirit that sojourns in the body. ‘That celestial spirit then that we call soul the Greeks call entelecheia [z. e., actuality]; this is so lively, enduring, strong, tenacious and vigilant a substance that its nature forbids the absence of action or existence. Its nature is incessant action or motion. So that it can as little sleep as the light or the sun can be an obscure body. Wherever you drive the sun it glows and kindles, as Phaethon experienced.t So the soul, no matter whither you drive it, animates, moves and impels, so that even when united firmly to the body, which itself under its own inertia sleeps, yet the soul sleeps not. For we recall what we have seen in sleep. Much more when freed from the body is it incapable of sleep, since it is a substance suited for continuous activity, incapable of weariness. So the body sleeps, the soul never, but when it is freed from the body this last sleeps the eternal night Finally the Catabaptists are ignorant that by the Hebrews the -resurrection of the dead is not always received of the supreme resurrection of the flesh, which we shall some time see; sometimes it means this, sometimes that, continuance and existence of mind, * Allusion to the Frankfort (on the Main) Autumnal Fair, which was the great book mart at that time; the date of this treatise being July 31, 1527.
+ He ventured to drive the chariot of the sun across the heavens, and came so near the earth that he almost set it on fire!
REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 253 by which, freed from the body, it persists and exists in life, oppressed neither by sleep nor death, for it cannot be so overcome.* In Josh. vii. 12 the Lord says: The children of Israel could not stand (surgo) before their enemies, and a little after [verse 13]: Thou canst not stand before thy enemies. Here in both places to rise is put for to stand fast and steady. For Jerome also translates “to stand.” In Matt. xxii. 31 Christ says: Touching the resur- rection of the dead have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. By which reply he taught nothing else but that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are Jiving, though dead. Of whom the Sadducees either denied the resurrection, z. e., living, or at least, after Catabaptist fashion, asserted that they [the dead] slept. For Christ’s reply referred not to the resurrection of the flesh, but to the fact that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived, though dead. So Paul speaks in Heb. xi. 35: But others were tortured (or crucified), not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Notice here how resurrection is used for the life of souls, which they are to have when released from the body. In this sense they so embraced the life that follows this that they would not accept the present life even when it was offered. So firm was their faith that they were sure the life that followed would be better. Whence also the saying of Christ in John vi. 40: I will raise him up at the last day, ought not to be distorted to any sense other than: “I will preserve him in life when he dies who trusts in me.” So he either implies * The theory here rejected is known as ‘‘ Psychopannychia,’’ the doctrine of the sleep of the soul. It received very elaborate refutation from the youthful Calvin: Psychopannychia, qua refellitur quorundam imperitorum error, qui animas post mortem usque ad ultimum judicium dormire putant. Libellus ante septem annos compositus, nunc tamen primum in lucem aeditus. Reprinted in Calvini Opera, ed. Baum et al., v., col. 165-232; Eng. trans., Ca/- vin’s Tracts, vol. iii., 413-490.
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that they who trust him will never die or will ever live most joyously. For that “last day ” here is not so much that final day of all things of the present world as the final day of each when he leaves this world. This is easily understood from John v. 24: He cometh not into judgment, but hath passed from death unto life. In ı Cor. xv. the apostle, speaking of the resur- rection, makes this which is understood as continuance or per- sistence in life, so to speak superior, of which he speaks in general, until he comes to the passage: How do the dead rise, or with what body do they come? There finally he reaches the discussion of that resurrection of the flesh which is to come at length. Do you, reader, that you may see that I assert nothing rashly, come to this passage, dismissing the rest. Notice how “From man came death, and from man the resurrection from the dead, for as in Adam all die, so in Christ all are made alive,” pertains not only to the resurrection of the flesh, but to that life which follows this at once. For through Adam we die, but through Christ we are preserved in life. For he says: He who believeth in me shall live even though he die. Then consider what follows: Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead? You see the ancients had a custom of baptizing themselves in behalf of the dead, not that this is approved by Paul or us (it was a foolish thing which followed the faithful out of unbelief even unto belief, for some things cling which per- versely have the appearance of piety, especially toward parents and relatives). But the apostle acutely employed the foolish abuse of bapitism—which in my judgment was nothing else than the sprinkling with lustral water the graves of their dead, as some do to-day—against those who denied that the soul lived after it left the body until it was raised for judgment. And he thus catches them: If then the soul sleeps, why do you, too, moisten with lustral water the graves of the dead? What benefit do you do those who do not live, but are either nothing or REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 255 asleep? You may note here in passing, reader, that this argu- ment is used partly in behalf of infant baptism. For if they supposed that with baptismal or lustral water they accomplished something for the dead, much less would they refuse it to children. For they would do this according to the Lord’s word, for that they would have no document. ‘Third, consider this, which he adds: And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? I die daily, etc. For this, too, tends hither. Paul means: If either no life follows this, or a sleep more than Epimenidean,* I should be foolish to undergo every danger daily. But it is very different. Eternal life follows this immediately, for otherwise I would not expose myself rashly to dangers of this kind. Fourth, he says: Let us eat, etc., and even “ Perverse communications corrupt good manners”’ points this way. For nothing equally corrupts manners with teaching that the soul dies, or, as the Catabaptists. now blaspheme, sleeps till the last day, and then they affirm that the devil and all are saved. What penalty then awaits the faith- less and criminal? This corruption would not spread so widely if they only denied that the flesh would live again. Fifth, consider this, too: Eknepsate dikaiös, 7. e., be vigilant. These words reflect Paul’s keenness. For when they, pressed in the sleep: of ignorance, suppose (like the wolf which believes that all ant mals eat raw flesh because it does so itself) that souls sleep, he says therefore wake up. And when because of their keenness these little scholars seem to themselves by no means to sleep, he rightly says wake up. For you think that you are awake and have hit the nail on the head when you are dreaming so som- nolently about sleep. After this weigh carefully the following, reader, and when you see that the apostle at first is speaking in general about the life of the soul after this life, and thence comes to the resurrection of the flesh, return to this and you will see that the Catabaptists are oppressed not so much by sleep as by evil, and teach whatever occurs to them. | * According to the tale Epimenides slept fifty-seven years.
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II. The Catabaptists teach this, too, that the devil and all impious will be blessed. Why then do they threaten us with eternal damnation unless we join them? See how consistent is their teaching! When we die we shall sleep till the last day, then we shall be cleared in the judgment. So the lower world is done away with, and Gehenna, and the inextinguishable fire, and the flames which devour the tares gathered into bundles. But they have learned that p9yy%, 7. e., the Hebrew word mean- ing forever, does not mean interminable duration. Here they do just as they do everywhere. When they have learned one thing, what they either are ignorant of or will not see they turn aside and reject. Let them therefore take Luke i. 33: He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. Is this forever used for some ages? Another witness is Matt. xxv. 41: Depart from me, ye cursed, into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Tell me here, when will that fire have an end if ezernal is always a definite time? How many ages, I ask, will there be when this age shall be finished? So that you are able to say how long that fire will endure before it is extinguished. But why do I ask, as if you said anything but what is most vain! And so do you, O reader, listen: In that last judgment, after which there shall be no Other, after which there shall be no age but sheer eternity, Christ will say: Depart hence from me into eternal fire. What end will that have that can find no end? For if that “ eternal” were temporary, as it cannot be, for then all time ceases, then the salvation of the blessed would be temporary. But the foolish talk foolishness.
III. Catabaptists assume to themselves all, the office of preach- ing, and of others who are legitimately set apart by Christian churches they inquire, Who elected you? For they are not sent even by their evil church. But here they do not regard Scrip- ture. It has no force. We do not read that any of the true apostles assumed to himself the ministry of the word. So no one ought to assume it to himself. When Paul asks: How shall REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 257 they preach unless they are sent? let him hear, Catabaptists. By what authority, pray? That of the father of lies and strife.
IV. Wherever it suits, the Catabaptists deny Scripture and assert their own spirit. But we know that Scriptures are to be interpreted by the spirit, but not by that contentious and rash spirit which the Catabaptists excite, rather by the true, eternal, peaceful and self-consistent spirit. We know also that Christ appealed to Scripture, who yet gave by sign and teaching suffi- cient proof whether he spoke from God, so that neither a Cata- baptist nor any other should dare to demand credence for himself when he speaks without Scripture authority. So that very won- derful is the effrontery with which they dare to demand Scripture proof for infant baptism, rather from non-Scripture. For they have nothing by which they may trust in Scripture, but only a negative basis alone when they say: We do not read that the apostles baptized infants, therefore they should not be baptized. They ward off all Scripture by the boss of an asserted spirit. Spurn not prophecy, they say, and do not extinguish the spirit. Right enough! But what is added? Prove all things. We shall then prove the spirit, for the divine John warns not to trust every spirit, but to prove them whether they are of God. You deny that Christ is by nature the Son of God, the propitiation for the sins of all the world. Your spirit is then not of God by John’s test. So we spurn your prophecy no otherwise than as when Saul put himself into the company of prophets. You extinguish the spirit by your rebaptism. Why not, when it is so often sub- merged? For it is not that spirit which at the foundation of the world brooded over the waters, but that which hurled itself into swine with the great damage of the neighbors, itself doubtless swimming out and leaving those amid the swamps of Gennesaret who ought to have solaced the winter of the poor. Attend to the allegory.