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The Great Controversy
his native valley. Having received ordination as a priest, he “devoted
himself with his whole soul to the search after divine truth; for he was
well aware,” says a fellow Reformer, “how much he must know to
whom the flock of Christ is entrusted.”—Wylie, b. 8, ch. 5. The more
he searched the Scriptures, the clearer appeared the contrast between
their truths and the heresies of Rome. He submitted himself to the
Bible as the word of God, the only sufficient, infallible rule. He saw
that it must be its own interpreter. He dared not attempt to explain
Scripture to sustain a preconceived theory or doctrine, but held it his
duty to learn what is its direct and obvious teaching. He sought to
avail himself of every help to obtain a full and correct understanding
of its meaning, and he invoked the aid of the Holy Spirit, which would,
he declared, reveal it to all who sought it in sincerity and with prayer.
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“The Scriptures,” said Zwingli, “come from God, not from man,
and even that God who enlightens will give thee to understand that
the speech comes from God. The word of God ... cannot fail; it is
bright, it teaches itself, it discloses itself, it illumines the soul with all
salvation and grace, comforts it in God, humbles it, so that it loses
and even forfeits itself, and embraces God.” The truth of these words
Zwingli himself had proved. Speaking of his experience at this time,
he afterward wrote: “When ... I began to give myself wholly up to the
Holy Scriptures, philosophy and theology (scholastic) would always
keep suggesting quarrels to me. At last I came to this, that I thought,
‘Thou must let all that lie, and learn the meaning of God purely out of
His own simple word.’ Then I began to ask God for His light, and the
Scriptures began to be much easier to me.”—Ibid., b. 8, ch. 6.
The doctrine preached by Zwingli was not received from Luther. It
was the doctrine of Christ. “If Luther preaches Christ,” said the Swiss
Reformer, “he does what I am doing. Those whom he has brought to
Christ are more numerous than those whom I have led. But this matters
not. I will bear no other name than that of Christ, whose soldier I am,
and who alone is my Chief. Never has one single word been written
by me to Luther, nor by Luther to me. And why? ... That it might be
shown how much the Spirit of God is in unison with itself, since both
of us, without any collusion, teach the doctrine of Christ with such
uniformity.”—D’Aubigne, b. 8, ch. 9.
In 1516 Zwingli was invited to become a preacher in the convent
at Einsiedeln. Here he was to have a closer view of the corruptions of