e who has it not, let him not devote
himself to her service. They who have it, let them secure a circle of
operation as free as possible; and this is the course of wisdom for
rulers.

Let us now return to Zwingli, a man in whom such faith and knowledge
were joined, and learn to know him also in his battle with the dangers,
into which his bold undertaking led him.

The public religious conferences had wakened in the city of Zurich a
spirit of inquiry, not, it is true, of that unrestricted kind which
seeks a philosophical basis for the dogmas of faith, according to the
deductions of human reason, but of that higher order, which looks to
their agreement with Holy Scripture. When this was settled,
investigation was at an end; but in the settlement there were peculiar
difficulties. Who would warrant the accuracy of the translation, when
disputes arose? Who would decide whether the obscurer passages should
be understood according to the bare sound of the words, or if a more
spiritual meaning were applicable?--Synods? Church Councils? They were
necessary, indispensable for the maintenance of order in the church.
They could work very beneficially for the improvement and
spiritualization of systems of doctrine. But to surrender to them the
deciding power in matters of faith--that would have been a return to
the abandoned principle of Catholicism. To this prelacy and intolerance
would have been joined inevitably. Or should every individual be left
to decide according to his own caprice? How then could divisions, sects
and endless controversies be avoided?

Here again faith lent her aid, faith in the inward truth of the Divine
Word. It ought to vindicate, it will vindicate itself, the more it is
preached by an educated ministry, which believes in its teachings. In
this conviction Zwingli and his friends found their support and did not
heed the dangers and the temporary confusion, produced by the overthrow
of existing ecclesiastical forms in Zurich.

Just in proportion as the Holy Scriptures became known through the
press and the pulpit, interpreters arose on all sides. Here it was
simplicity, there presumption, and in the majority passion or selfish
projects, which prompted them. By this means the people, a short time
before so sensible and quiet, were evidently disturbed and excited.
Most pernicious dogmas like these--that learning was superfluous, that
Christians ought to own no property, that a nation of brothers needed
no