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 “Mankiw & Taylor’s Economics is a superb book for all students
approaching this subject for the first time. The book is both intuitive,
with plenty of examples enabling students to link economic theory and
facts, and rigorous, with analytical supplements and extensive exercises
allowing students to go into depth if they wish to. This book will make
students love this subject and it is simply excellent.”
Dr Gaia Garino, Principal Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Leicester, UK

“A very well written and modern text, covering a wide and exhaustive range of
topics to be taught in introduction to economics classes. The accessible language and
approach is ideal for all students including those to whom English is a second language,
and a key pedagogical strength of the book is the many examples which show students
how to apply key economics topics within their everyday lives.”

Economics
Prof. Erich Ruppert, Faculty of Economics, Business and Law, University of Aschaffenburg, Germany

Now firmly established as one of the leading economics principles texts in the UK and Europe, this exciting, new third edition
by N. Gregory Mankiw (Harvard University) and Mark P. Taylor (Warwick University), has undergone some significant
restructuring and reorganization to more directly match economics students’ course structures and learning and assessment
needs. There are new sections covering microeconomic and macroeconomic topics and concepts in more depth, whilst at
the same time retaining the book’s reputation for clarity, authority and real world relevance.

New to the third edition:

> In direct response to user feedback, the chapter structure has been reorganized to better map to typical UK
and European course structures
> Brand new Case Studies, In the News features, and examples throughout
> Supplementary maths content provided separately
> Enhanced lecturer and student digital support resources including articles from The Economist with associated
discussion questions linked to every chapter and new assessment practice questions which can be used for
tutorial discussion and assignments
> New coverage on information and behavioural economics, business cycles, supply-side policies the role of
empirical evidence, and economic rent
> Fully updated to reflect the economic arguments which have surfaced following the financial crisis
> Fresh, modern text design with accessible layout and approach

About the Authors

Mankiw
Taylor
N. Gregory Mankiw, Professor of Economics, Harvard University, USA
Mark P. Taylor, Professor of Economics and Dean of Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK

N. Gregory Mankiw Mark P. Taylor

Economics
Economics is essential reading for all students taking introductory economics modules on undergraduate courses and within
an economics component of postgraduate and MBA courses.

For your lifelong learning solutions, visit www.cengage.co.uk

Purchase your next print book, e-book or e-chapter at www.cengagebrain.com

93795_cvr_ptg01_hires.indd 1 12/20/13 5:13 PM

 CONTENTS vii

PART 12 29 A macroeconomic theory of the open

economy 622
INTEREST RATES, MONEY AND
Supply and demand for loanable funds and for
PRICES IN THE LONG RUN 519 foreign currency exchange 622
Equilibrium in the open economy 625
24 Saving, investment and the financial How policies and events affect an open
system 519 economy 628
Financial institutions in the economy 520 Conclusion 634
Saving and investment in the national income
accounts 527
The market for loanable funds 530
Conclusion 535 PART 14
SHORT-RUN ECONOMIC
25 The basic tools of finance 539 FLUCTUATIONS 637
Present value: Measuring the time value
of money 539 30 Business cycles 637
Managing risk 541 Trend growth rates 638
Asset valuation 548 Causes of changes in the business cycle 645
Conclusion 554 Business cycle models 646
Conclusion 650
26 The monetary system 558
The meaning of money 559 31 Keynesian economics and IS-LM
The role of central banks 565 analysis 655
The European Central Bank and the The Keynesian cross 655
Eurosystem 566 The multiplier effect 659
The Bank of England 567 The IS and LM curves 665
Banks and the money supply 568 General equilibrium using the IS-LM model 667
Conclusion 579 From IS-LM to aggregate demand 669
Conclusion 675
27 Money growth and inflation 583
The classical theory of inflation 584 32 Aggregate demand and aggregate
The costs of inflation 594 supply 679
Conclusion 599 Three key facts about economic fluctuations 679
Explaining short-run economic fluctuations 680
The aggregate demand curve 682
The aggregate supply curve 686
PART 13 Two causes of economic fluctuations 691
THE MACROECONOMICS OF OPEN New Keynesian economics 697
ECONOMIES 605 Conclusion 698

28 Open-economy macroeconomics: Basic 33 The influence of monetary and fiscal

concepts 605 policy on aggregate demand 702
The international flows of goods and capital 606 How monetary policy influences aggregate
The prices for international transactions: Real demand 702
and nominal exchange rates 609 How fiscal policy influences aggregate
A first theory of exchange rate determination: demand 709
Purchasing power parity 612 Using policy to stabilize the economy 713
Conclusion 618 Conclusion 716
viii CONTENTS

34 The short-run trade-off between inflation 37 The financial crisis and sovereign
and unemployment 721 debt 782
The Phillips curve 721 Bubbles and speculation 782
Shifts in the Phillips curve: The role of The sovereign debt crisis 793
expectations 724 Austerity policies – too far too quickly? 797
The long-run vertical Phillips curve as an
argument for Central Bank independence 730
Glossary 805
Shifts in the Phillips curve: the role of supply
Index 814
shocks 732
Credits 820
The cost of reducing inflation 734
Inflation targeting 739
Conclusion 740

35 Supply-side policies 745

Shifts in the aggregate supply curve 745
Types of supply-side policies 749
Conclusion 756

PART 15
INTERNATIONAL
MACROECONOMICS 759
36 Common currency areas and European
monetary union 759
The euro 760
The single European market and the euro 760
The benefits and costs of a common
currency 762
The theory of optimum currency areas 765
Is Europe an optimum currency area? 768
Fiscal policy and common currency areas 772
Conclusion 777
ABOUT THE AUTHORS

AUTHORS
N. GREGORY MANKIW is Professor of Economics at Harvard University. As a student, he studied eco-
nomics at Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). As a teacher he has taught
macroeconomics, microeconomics, statistics and principles of economics. Professor Mankiw is a prolific writer
and a regular participant in academic and policy debates. In addition to his teaching, research and writing,
Professor Mankiw has been a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, an advisor to
the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the Congressional Budget Office. From 2003 to 2005, he served as
chairman of the US President’s Council of Economic Advisors and was an advisor to Presidential candidate Mitt
Romney during the 2012 US presidential election. Professor Mankiw lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with his
wife Deborah, their three children and their border terrier Tobin.

MARK P. TAYLOR is Dean of Warwick Business School at the University of Warwick and Professor of
International Finance. He obtained his first degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University
and his Master’s degree in economics from London University, from where he also holds a doctorate in econom-
ics and international finance. Professor Taylor has taught economics and finance at various universities (including
Oxford, Warwick and New York) and at various levels (including principles courses, advanced undergraduate and
advanced postgraduate courses). He has also worked as a senior economist at the International Monetary Fund
and at the Bank of England and, before becoming Dean of Warwick Business School, was a managing director at
BlackRock, the world’s largest financial asset manager, where he worked on international asset allocation based
on macroeconomic analysis. His research has been extensively published in scholarly journals and he is today
one of the most highly cited economists in the world. Professor Taylor lives with his family in a 15th-century farm-
house near Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire, where he collects clocks and keeps bees.

CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
ANDREW ASHWIN has over 20 years experience as a teacher of economics. He has an MBA and is currently
researching for a PhD investigating assessment and the notion of threshold concepts in economics. Andrew is an
experienced author, writing a number of texts for students at different levels and journal publications related to his
PhD research, and learning materials for the website Biz/ed, which was based at the University of Bristol. Andrew
was Chair of Examiners for a major awarding body for business and economics in England and is a consultant for
the UK regulator, Ofqual. Andrew has a keen interest in assessment and learning in economics and has received
accreditation as a Chartered Assessor with the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors. He is also Editor of
the Economics, Business and Enterprise Association (EBEA) journal. Andrew lives in Rutland with his wife Sue
and their twin sons Alex and Johnny.

ix
 PREFACE

T he third edition of Economics has a different look to the previous two editions. Feedback from users, both
students and instructors, has resulted in some reorganization of the material and some new sections cover-
ing more depth in both micro- and macroeconomic issues. Readers should note that this edition adapts Greg
Mankiw’s best-selling US undergraduate Economics text to reflect the needs of students and instructors in
the UK and European market. As each new edition is written, the adaptation evolves and develops an identity
distinct from the original US edition on which it is based.
We have tried to retain the lively, engaging writing style and to continue to have the novice economics stu-
dent in mind. Economics touches every aspect of our lives and the fundamental concepts which are introduced
can be applied across a whole range of life experiences. ‘Economics is a study of mankind in the ordinary
business of life.’ So wrote Alfred Marshall, the great 19th-century British economist, in his textbook, Principles
of Economics. As you work through the contents of this book you would be well advised to remember this.
Whilst the news might focus on the world of banking and finance, tax and government policy, economics
provides much more than a window on these worlds. It provides an understanding of decision making and the
process of decision making across so many different aspects of life. You may be considering travelling abroad,
for example, and are shocked at the price you have to pay for injections against tropical diseases. Should you
decide to try and do without the injections? Whilst the amount of money you are expected to give up seems
high, it is a small price to pay when you consider the trade-off – the potential cost to you and your family of
contracting a serious disease. This is as much economics as monetary policy decisions about interest rates and
firm’s decisions on investment.
Welcome to the wonderful world of economics – learn to think like an economist and a whole new world
will open up to you.

Maths for Mankiw Taylor Economics is available for purchase as a supplementary resource carefully explaining
and teaching the maths concepts and formulae underlying many of the key chapter topics.

x
SUPPLEMENTS

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xi
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Michael Barrow, University of Sussex, UK Jassodra Maharaj, University of East London, UK

Brian Bell, London School of Economics, UK Paul Melessen, Hogeschool van Amsterdam, The
Thomas Braeuninger, University of Mannheim, Netherlands
Germany Jørn Rattsø, Norwegian University of Science &
Eleanor Denny, Trinity College Dublin, UK Technology, Norway
Gaia Garino, University of Leicester, UK Frédéric Robert-Nicoud, University of Geneva,
Chris Grammenos, American College of Switzerland
Thessaloniki, Greece Jack Rogers, University of Exeter, UK
Getinet Haile, University of Nottingham, UK Erich Ruppert, Hochschule Aschaffenburg, Germany
Luc Hens, Vrije Uni, Belgium Noel Russell, University of Manchester, UK
William Jackson, University of York, UK Munacinga Simatele, University of Hertfordshire, UK
Colin Jennings, King’s College London, UK Robert Simmons, University of Lancaster, UK
Sarah Louise Jewell, University of Reading, UK Alison Sinclair, University of Nottingham, UK
Arie Kroon, Utrecht Hogeschool, The Netherlands

xiii
PART 1
INTRODUCTION TO
ECONOMICS

1 TEN PRINCIPLES OF
ECONOMICS

WHAT IS ECONOMICS?
The word economy comes from the Greek word oikonomos, which means ‘one who manages a house-
hold’. At first, this origin might seem peculiar. But, in fact, households and economies have much in
common.
A household faces many decisions. It must decide which members of the household do which tasks
and what each member gets in return: Who cooks dinner? Who does the laundry? Who gets the extra slice
of cake at tea time? Who chooses what TV programme to watch? In short, the household must allocate
its scarce resources among its various members, taking into account each member’s abilities, efforts and
desires.
Like a household, a society faces many decisions. A society must decide what jobs will be done and
who will do them. It needs some people to grow food, other people to make clothing and still others to
design computer software. Once society has allocated people (as well as land, buildings and machines)
to various jobs, it must also allocate the output of goods and services that they produce. It must decide
who will eat caviar and who will eat potatoes. It must decide who will drive a Mercedes and who will take
the bus.

The Economic Problem

These decisions can be summarized as representing the economic problem. There are three questions
that any society has to face:
● What goods and services should be produced?
● How should these goods and services be produced?
● Who should get the goods and services that have been produced?
The answer to these questions would be simple if resources were so plentiful that society could produce
everything any of its citizens could ever want, but this is not the case. Society will never have enough

1
2 PART 1 INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMICS

resources to produce the goods and services which will satisfy the wants and needs of its citizens. These
resources can be broadly classified into three categories:
● Land – all the natural resources of the earth. This includes things like mineral deposits such as iron ore,
gold and copper, fish in the sea, coal and all the food products that land yields. David Ricardo (1817) in
his book On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation referred to land as the ‘original and indes-
tructible powers of the soil’.
● Labour – the human effort both mental and physical that goes in to production. A worker in a factory pro-
ducing precision tools, an investment banker, a road sweeper, a teacher – these are all forms of labour.
● Capital – the equipment and structures used to produce goods and services. Capital goods include
machinery in factories, buildings, tractors, computers, cooking ovens – anything where the good is not
used for its own sake but for the contribution it makes to production.

land all the natural resources of the earth

labour the human effort both mental and physical that goes in to production
capital the equipment and structures used to produce goods and services

Scarcity and Choice

What resources society does have need to be managed. The management of society’s resources is
important because resources are scarce. Scarcity means that society has limited resources and therefore
cannot produce all the goods and services people wish to have. Just as a household cannot give every
member everything he or she wants, a society cannot give every individual the highest standard of living
to which he or she might aspire.
Economics is the study of how society manages its scarce resources and attempts to answer the
three key questions we noted above. In most societies, resources are allocated through the combined
actions of millions of households and firms through a system of markets. Economists:
● Study how people make decisions: how much they work, what they buy, how much they save and how
they invest their savings.
● Study how people interact with one another. For instance, they examine how the multitude of buyers
and sellers of a good together determine the price at which the good is sold and the quantity that is sold.
● Analyse forces and trends that affect the economy as a whole, including the growth in average income,
the fraction of the population that cannot find work and the rate at which prices are rising.

scarcity the limited nature of society’s resources

economics the study of how society manages its scarce resources

Although the study of economics has many facets, the field is unified by several central ideas. In the
rest of this chapter we look at the Ten Principles of Economics. Don’t worry if you don’t understand them
all at first, or if you don’t find them completely convincing. In the coming chapters we will explore these
ideas more fully. The ten principles are introduced here just to give you an overview of what economics is
all about. You can think of this chapter as a ‘preview of coming attractions’.

HOW PEOPLE MAKE DECISIONS

There is no mystery to what an ‘economy’ is. Whether we are talking about the economy of a group
of countries such as the European Union (EU), or the economy of one particular country, such as India,
or of the whole world, an economy is just a group of people interacting with one another as they go
about their lives. The economy refers to all the production and exchange activities that take place every
day – all the buying and selling. The level of economic activity is how much buying and selling goes on in
the economy over a period of time.
 CHAPTER 1 TEN PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS 3

the economy all the production and exchange activities that take place every day
economic activity how much buying and selling goes on in the economy over a period of time

Because the behaviour of an economy reflects the behaviour of the individuals who make up the eco-
nomy, we start our study of economics with four principles of individual decision making.

Principle 1: People Face Trade-offs

The first lesson about making decisions is summarized in an adage popular with economists: ‘There is no
such thing as a free lunch.’ To get one thing that we like, we usually have to give up another thing that we
also like. Making decisions requires trading off the benefits of one goal against those of another.
Consider a student who must decide how to allocate her most valuable resource – her time. She can
spend all of her time studying economics which will bring benefits such as a better class of degree; she
can spend all her time enjoying leisure activities which yield different benefits; or she can divide her time
between the two. For every hour she studies, she gives up an hour she could have devoted to spending
time in the gym, riding a bicycle, watching TV, napping or working at her part-time job for some extra
spending money.
Consider parents deciding how to spend their family income. They can buy food, clothing or a family
holiday. Or they can save some of the family income for retirement or perhaps to help the children buy a
house or a flat when they are grown up. When they choose to spend an extra euro on one of these goods,
they have one less euro to spend on some other good.
When people are grouped into societies, they face different kinds of trade-offs. The classic trade-off is
between spending on defence and spending on food. The more we spend on national defence to protect
our country from foreign aggressors, the less we can spend on consumer goods to raise our standard
of living at home. Also important in modern society is the trade-off between a clean environment and a
high level of income. Laws that require firms to reduce pollution raise the cost of producing goods and
services. Because of the higher costs, these firms end up earning smaller profits, paying lower wages,
charging higher prices, or some combination of these three. Thus, while pollution regulations give us the
benefit of a cleaner environment and the improved levels of health that come with it, they have the cost
of reducing the incomes of the firms’ owners, workers and customers.
Another trade-off society faces is between efficiency and equity. Efficiency means that society is get-
ting the most it can (depending how this is defined) from its scarce resources. Equity means that the
benefits of those resources are distributed fairly among society’s members. In other words, efficiency
refers to the size of the economic cake, and equity refers to how the cake is divided. Often, when govern-
ment policies are being designed, these two goals conflict.

equity – the property of distributing economic prosperity fairly among the members of society

Consider, for instance, policies aimed at achieving a more equal distribution of economic well-being.
Some of these policies, such as the social security system or unemployment insurance, try to help those
members of society who are most in need. Others, such as income tax, ask the financially successful to
contribute more than others to support government spending. Although these policies have the benefit of
achieving greater equity, they have a cost in terms of reduced efficiency. When the government redistrib-
utes income from the rich to the poor, it reduces the reward for working hard; as a result, people work less
and produce fewer goods and services. In other words, when the government tries to cut the economic
cake into more equal slices, the cake gets smaller.
Recognizing that people face trade-offs does not by itself tell us what decisions they will or should
make. A student should not abandon the study of economics just because doing so would increase the
time available for leisure. Society should not stop protecting the environment just because environmental
regulations reduce our material standard of living. The poor should not be ignored just because helping
4 PART 1 INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMICS

them distorts work incentives. Nevertheless, acknowledging life’s trade-offs is important because people
are likely to make good decisions only if they understand the options that they have available.

A typical supermarket shelf offering a

variety of cereals. What are the trade-offs
an individual faces in this situation?

SELF TEST Does the adage ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’ simply refer to the fact that someone has
to have paid for the lunch to be provided and served? Or does the recipient of the ‘free lunch’ also incur a cost?

Principle 2: The Cost of Something is What You Give Up to Get It

Because people face trade-offs, making decisions requires comparing the costs and benefits of alternat-
ive courses of action. In many cases, however, the cost of some action is not as obvious as it might first
appear.
Consider, for example, the decision whether to go to university. The benefit is intellectual enrichment
and a lifetime of better job opportunities. But what is the cost? To answer this question, you might be
tempted to add up the money you spend on tuition fees, books, room and board. Yet this total does not
truly represent what you give up to spend a year at university.
The first problem with this answer is that it includes some things that are not really costs of going to
university. Even if you decided to leave full-time education, you would still need a place to sleep and food
to eat. Room and board are part of the costs of higher education only to the extent that they might be
more expensive at university than elsewhere. Indeed, the cost of room and board at your university might
be less than the rent and food expenses that you would pay living on your own. In this case, the savings
on room and board are actually a benefit of going to university.
The second problem with this calculation of costs is that it ignores the largest cost of a university
education – your time. When you spend a year listening to lectures, reading textbooks and writing essays,
you cannot spend that time working at a job. For most students, the wages given up to attend university
are the largest single cost of their higher education.
The opportunity cost of an item is what you give up to get that item. When making any decision, such
as whether to go to university, decision makers should be aware of the opportunity costs that accompany
each possible action. In fact, they usually are. University-age rugby, basketball or golf players who can earn
large sums of money if they opt out of higher education and play professional sport are well aware that
their opportunity cost of going to university is very high. It is not surprising that they often decide that the
benefit is not worth the cost.

opportunity cost – whatever must be given up to obtain some item; the value of the benefits foregone (sacrificed)
 CHAPTER 1 TEN PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS 5

SELF TEST Assume the following costs are incurred by a student over a three-year course at a university:
● Tuition fees at €9,000 per year = €27,000 ● Accommodation, based on an average cost of €4,500 a year =
€13,500 ● Opportunity cost based on average earnings foregone of €15,000 per year = €45,000 ● Total cost =
€85,500 ● Given this relatively large cost why does anyone want to go to university?

Principle 3: Rational People Think at the Margin

Decisions in life are rarely straightforward and usually involve problems. At dinner time, the decision you
face is not between fasting or eating as much as you can, but whether to take that extra serving of pizza.
When examinations roll around, your decision is not between completely failing them or studying 24 hours
a day, but whether to spend an extra hour revising your notes instead of watching TV. Economists use the
term marginal changes to describe small incremental adjustments to an existing plan of action. Keep
in mind that ‘margin’ means ‘edge’, so marginal changes are adjustments around the edges of what you
are doing.

marginal changes small incremental adjustments to a plan of action

In many situations, people make the best decisions by thinking at the margin. Suppose, for instance,
that you were considering whether to study for a Master’s degree having completed your undergraduate
studies. To make this decision, you need to know the additional benefits that an extra year in education
would offer (higher wages throughout your life and the sheer joy of learning) and the additional costs that
you would incur (another year of tuition fees and another year of foregone wages). By comparing these
marginal benefits and marginal costs, you can evaluate whether the extra year is worthwhile.
Individuals and firms can make better decisions by thinking at the margin. A rational decision maker
takes an action if and only if the marginal benefit of the action exceeds the marginal cost.

Principle 4: People Respond to Incentives

Because people make decisions by comparing costs and benefits, their behaviour may change when
the costs or benefits change. That is, people respond to incentives. When the price of an apple rises, for
instance, people decide to eat more pears and fewer apples because the cost of buying an apple is higher.
At the same time, apple farmers decide to hire more workers and harvest more apples, because the benefit
of selling an apple is also higher. As we shall see, the effect of price on the behaviour of buyers and sellers
in a market – in this case, the market for apples – is crucial for understanding how the economy works.
Public policymakers should never forget about incentives, because many policies change the costs or
benefits that people face and, therefore, alter behaviour. A tax on petrol, for instance, encourages people
to drive smaller, more fuel efficient cars. It also encourages people to switch and use public transport
rather than drive, or to move closer to where they work. When policymakers fail to consider how their
policies affect incentives, they often end up with results they did not intend. For example, the UK govern-
ment provided tax relief on business premises that were not being used as an incentive to the owners to
find new uses or owners for the buildings. The government decided to remove the tax relief and sugges-
ted that in doing so there would now be an incentive for owners of premises to get them back into use
as quickly as possible so that they avoided losing the tax relief. Unfortunately, as the new policy came
into being the economy was going through a severe recession. It was not easy for owners of premises to
find new tenants let alone get new businesses created in these empty properties. Some property owners
decided that rather than have to pay tax on these properties it was cheaper to demolish them. Is this the
outcome the government wanted? Almost certainly not.
This is an example of the general principle that people respond to incentives. Many incentives that
economists study are straightforward and others more complex. No one is surprised, for example, that
people might switch to driving smaller cars where petrol taxes and thus the price of fuel is relatively high.
6 PART 1 INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMICS

Yet, as the example of the removal of tax allowances on empty business premises shows, policies can
have effects that are not obvious in advance. When analysing any policy, we must consider not only the
direct effects but also the indirect effects that work through incentives. If the policy changes incentives, it
will cause people to alter their behaviour.

SELF TEST Many people across the EU are without work and claiming benefits. Governments throughout the
EU are trying to cut spending but find themselves having to spend more on welfare benefits for the unemployed.
What sort of incentives might governments put in place to encourage workers off welfare and into work? What
might be the unintended consequences of the incentives you identify?

HOW PEOPLE INTERACT

The first four principles discussed how individuals make decisions. As we go about our lives, many of our
decisions affect not only ourselves but other people as well. The next three principles concern how people
interact with one another.

Principle 5: Trade Can Make Everyone Better Off

America and China are competitors to Europe in the world economy. In some ways this is true, because
American and Chinese firms produce many of the same goods as European firms. Toy manufacturers
compete for the same customers in the market for toys. Fruit farmers compete for the same customers
in the market for fruit.
Yet it is easy to be misled when thinking about competition among countries. Trade between Europe
and the United States and China is not like a sports contest, where one side wins and the other side loses
(a zero-sum game). In fact, the opposite is true: trade between two economies can make each economy
better off.
To see why, consider how trade affects your family. When a member of your family looks for a job, he or
she competes against members of other families who are looking for jobs. Families also compete against
one another when they go shopping, because each family wants to buy the best goods at the lowest
prices. So, in a sense, each family in the economy is competing with all other families.
Despite this competition, your family would not be better off isolating itself from all other families. If it
did, your family would need to grow its own food, make its own clothes and build its own home. Clearly,
your family gains much from its ability to trade with others. Trade allows each person to specialize in the
activities he or she does best, whether it is farming, sewing or home building. By trading with others,
people can buy a greater variety of goods and services at lower cost.
Countries as well as families benefit from the ability to trade with one another. Trade allows countries to
specialize in what they do best and to enjoy a greater variety of goods and services. The Japanese and the
Americans, as well as the Koreans and the Brazilians, are as much Europe’s partners in the world economy
as they are competitors.

Principle 6: Markets Are Usually a Good Way to Organize Economic Activity

The collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the 1980s may be the most import-
ant change in the world during the past half century. Communist countries worked on the premise that
central planners in the government were in the best position to guide economic activity and answer the
three key questions of the economic problem. These planners decided what goods and services were
produced, how much was produced, and who produced and consumed these goods and services. The
theory behind central planning was that only the government could organize economic activity in a way
that promoted economic well-being for the country as a whole.
Today, most countries that once had centrally planned economies such as Russia, Poland, Angola,
Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo have abandoned this system and are trying to develop
 CHAPTER 1 TEN PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS 7

market economies. In a market economy, the decisions of a central planner are replaced by the decisions
of millions of firms and households. Firms decide whom to hire and what to make. Households decide
which firms to work for and what to buy with their incomes. These firms and households interact in the
marketplace, where prices and self-interest guide their decisions.

market economy an economy that addresses the three key questions of the economic problem through allocating
resources through the decentralized decisions of many firms and households as they interact in markets for goods and services

At first glance, the success of market economies is puzzling. After all, in a market economy, no one
is considering the economic well-being of society as a whole. Free markets contain many buyers and
sellers of numerous goods and services, and all of them are interested primarily in their own well-being.
Yet, despite decentralized decision making and self-interested decision makers, market economies have
proven remarkably successful in organizing economic activity in a way that promotes overall economic
well-being.

FYI
Adam Smith and the Invisible Hand
Adam Smith’s great work An Inquiry likely to prevail if he can interest self-interest into promoting general
into the Nature and Causes of the their self-love in his favour, and economic well-being.
Wealth of Nations was published in show them that it is for their own Many of Smith’s insights remain
1776 and is a landmark in economics. advantage to do for him what he at the centre of modern economics.
In its emphasis on the invisible hand requires of them. … It is not from Our analysis in the coming chapters
of the market economy, it reflected the benevolence of the butcher, the will allow us to express Smith’s
a point of view that was typical of brewer, or the baker that we expect conclusions more precisely and
so-called ‘enlightenment’ writers at our dinner, but from their regard to to analyse fully the strengths and
the end of the 18th century – that their own interest. … weaknesses of the market’s invisible
individuals are usually best left to Every individual … neither intends hand.
their own devices, without gov- to promote the public interest, nor
ernment guiding their actions. This knows how much he is promoting
political philosophy provides the it. … He intends only his own gain,
intellectual basis for the market and he is in this, as in many other
economy. cases, led by an invisible hand to
Why do decentralized market promote an end which was no part
economies work so well? Is it of his intention. Nor is it always the
because people can be counted on worse for the society that it was
to treat one another with love and no part of it. By pursuing his own
kindness? Not at all. Here is Adam interest he frequently promotes that
Smith’s description of how people of the society more effectually than
interact in a market economy: when he really intends to promote it.

Man has almost constant occasion Smith is saying that participants

for the help of his brethren, and it is in the economy are motivated by
vain for him to expect it from their self-interest and that the ‘invisible
benevolence only. He will be more hand’ of the marketplace guides this
8 PART 1 INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMICS

One of our goals in this book is to understand how Smith’s invisible hand works its magic. As you study
economics, you will learn that prices are the instrument with which the invisible hand directs economic
activity. Prices reflect both the value of a good to society and the cost to society of making the good.
Because households and firms look at prices when deciding what to buy and sell, they unknowingly
take into account the social benefits and costs of their actions. As a result, prices guide these individual
decision makers to reach outcomes that, in many cases, maximize the welfare of society as a whole.

Principle 7: Governments Can Sometimes Improve Market Outcomes

If the invisible hand of the market is so wonderful, why do we need government? One answer is that the
invisible hand needs government to protect it. Markets work only if property rights are enforced. A farmer
won’t grow food if he expects his crop to be stolen, and a restaurant won’t serve meals unless it is assured
that customers will pay before they leave. We all rely on government provided police and courts to enforce
our rights over the things we produce.
Yet there is another answer to why we need government: although markets are usually a good way
to organize economic activity, this rule has some important exceptions. There are two broad reasons for
a government to intervene in the economy – to promote efficiency and to promote equity. That is, most
policies aim either to enlarge the economic cake or to change the way in which the cake is divided.
Although the invisible hand often leads markets to allocate resources efficiently, that is not always the
case. Economists use the term market failure to refer to a situation in which the market on its own fails to
produce an efficient allocation of resources. One possible cause of market failure is an externality, which
is the uncompensated impact of one person’s actions on the well-being of a bystander (a third party). For
instance, the classic example of an external cost is pollution. Another possible cause of market failure
is market power, which refers to the ability of a single person or business (or group of businesses) to
unduly influence market prices. In the presence of market failure, well designed public policy can enhance
economic efficiency.

market failure a situation where scarce resources are not allocated to their most efficient use
externality the cost or benefit of one person’s decision on the well-being of a bystander (a third party) which the decision
maker does not take into account in making the decision
market power the ability of a single economic agent (or small group of agents) to have a substantial influence on market prices

The invisible hand may also fail to ensure that economic prosperity is distributed equitably. One of the
three questions society has to address is who gets what is produced? A market economy rewards people
according to their ability to produce things for which other people are willing to pay. The world’s best
footballer earns more than the world’s best chess player simply because people are willing to pay more to
watch football than chess. That individual is getting more of what is produced as a result of his earnings.
The invisible hand does not ensure that everyone has sufficient food, decent clothing and adequate health
care. Many public policies, such as income tax and the social security system, aim to achieve a more
equitable distribution of economic well-being.
To say that the government can improve on market outcomes at times does not mean that it always will.
Public policy is made not by angels but by a political process that is far from perfect. Sometimes policies
are designed simply to reward the politically powerful. Sometimes they are made by well-intentioned
leaders who are not fully informed. One goal of the study of economics is to help you judge when a gov-
ernment policy is justifiable to promote efficiency or equity, and when it is not.

HOW THE ECONOMY AS A WHOLE WORKS

We started by discussing how individuals make decisions and then looked at how people interact with one
another. All these decisions and interactions together make up ‘the economy’. The last three of our ten
principles concern the workings of the economy as a whole.
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
 200 ZWINGLI SELECTIONS. It is no strange thing that so
many sects are born daily; it is wonderful that more are not
produced, especially when we have so wise interpreters of Scripture
that they do not yet discriminate between Christ’s omnipotence,
providence and divinity, by which he ever governs all, and his
mission which he performed here. For when they behold that which
he did in accordance with his mission here immediately they found
upon those laws. Here he did not take upon himself the functions of
a judge, for he did not come for that. Let no one therefore be judge.
By no means. For that is to confound divine and human law.
Catabaptists. Secondly, the question is asked about the sword,
whether a Christian may pronounce or give judgment in secular
matters, between force‘ and force, strife and strife, in which the
unfaithful differ. To which we reply: Christ would not decide between
brethren who quarreled about a bequest, but drove them away.
Consequently we must do likewise. Reply. I think it is clear enough
why Christ put away this case; he had not come to prepare a
kingdom for himself in this world, but that he who was Lord of all
might subject himself to all. And I assert that the words of the
Saviour prove this. For who, said he, made me a judge and a divider
over you? Behold how he rejected the office of a judge! For although
Christ was lord of all, yet in the dispensation of his humanity he
never proclaimed himself king. When then he denies that he is a
judge, he denies that this case concerns him; but meanwhile, when
the occasion offers, does he not discuss the rendering to each of his
own ?—something that he almost never omits. If ever a reason is
given for discussing necessary matters, he always passes from the
gross to the spiritual. But here in passing by this he openly teaches
that there was some judge to whom they could refer the case, but
Christ was not he, so he made no decision. ‘Therefore we see the
office of judge rather confirmed than done away, even among the
devout. So Paul’s admonition to bear injury rather than litigate with a
brother does not involve that a Christian may
 MPS a Fy re ee Re ee REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS.
201 not be a judge; it urges us not to be litigious. So also Christ
warned against lawsuits because of the danger, since it often
occurred in fact that he who hoped to return from the court a winner
was thrown into prison till he could pay the whole debt. But this is
excessively Christian when they say: In the lawsuits which the
unbelieving engage in—meaning by the unbelieving all who are not
of their heretical church. For they assert that a Christian may not
exercise the office of judge in external matters —yet this is a divine
matter if rightly performed. While they arrogate to themselves the
judgment of the inner man (for they call all unbelieving who of a
whole heart cherish the true God and the one Jesus Christ, provided
these do not follow their erring flock). And they do this openly. For
often two of. them pass by good and devout men and one of them,
the other being left to go on, stops to chat with our people; then the
one who has gone on, turning about, cries out to the other: Brother,
what are you doing among the unbelievers? Go away from. them!
Gentle men, indeed, who occasion some damage as often; as
opportunity permits! Which class seems to you, reader, to be the
gentler and more humble—they who think nothing but violence and
injury or those who overcome all audacity by sweetness?
Catabaptists. Third, about the sword it is asked whether a Christian
ought to hold office when it is appointed to him. We reply that Christ
was about to be made king, yet he fled and did not look back,
according to the ordinance of his Father. So ought we to do, z. e.,
follow him, and we shall not walk in the darkness. For he said also:
He that would follow me must deny himself and take up his cross
and follow me. He even interdicted the power of the sword, and thus
denounced it: The kings of the Gentiles rule, but ye are not such. So
Paul says: Whom God foreknew he also predestinated to be
conformed to the image of his Son. Peter also said that he had
suffered, not ruled, and left us an example that we might follow in
his footsteps. 14
 202 ZWINGLI SELECTIONS. Reply. That Christ would have
been king if he had not fled has been discussed above. For he came
not to be tended and ministered to as tyrants are, but to minister;
not to give the whole world for the redemption of his own skin, as
you Cata« baptists do, betraying all your brethren when peril
threatens, but to give his life for all mankind. He came for this, I say.
Yet he never forbade a Christian and one worthy of empire to
become a king even. “Who would follow me must deny himself and
take up his cross and follow me ’’—this was not said by him to
indicate that no one could take office because he did not. For many
kings have despised themselves and followed him, though retaining
their royal authority until the end. If Saul had done this he would not
have rendered the mountains of Gilboa illustrious by his calamity. “
The kings of the Gentiles exercise authority over them, but ye are
not so,” was not said to interdict from the magistracy. We ought to
consider the occasion by which he was led to express this sentiment.
The apostles had been contending about the leadership. Let us then
recognize that it was said to them. For as he had come not to rule,
but to redeem, so also he sent the disciples: As the Father, he said,
hath sent me, so I also send you, 2. e., to preach, not to rule. So
since the apostles acted in Christ’s place, they ought to restrain their
desires to rule after the pattern of their archetype Christ. He
commanded them therefore not to rule; nay, to each private
individual he implied that he should not put himself forward. I will
prove this by the testimony of the apostles themselves. Peter
ordered slaves to obey their masters, not only good and humane
ones, but even the perverted. Behold how he opposes the perverse
to good and humane! He means by the good those who were
faithful; by the perverse, not the harsh and unkind, but those not in
the faith. Therefore there were faithful masters. Peter also baptized
Cornelius the centurion. The high functionary of the Ethiopian
Candace was baptized by Philip. But if, according to your opinion, a
Christian may not .exercise
 REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 203 the magistracy, and
penitence and confession of faith are required before being baptized,
then Peter and Philip did wrong in baptizing these before they had
resigned office, or a Gentile who has been placed in office may also
be baptized and received into the church. But in Paul we find
mention of a Christian Quaestor and faithful master. For in writing to
the Ephesians he says: Slaves who have faithful masters. And to the
powerful of the Colossians he writes that they should act justly to
the slaves whom they possess. I pass by Sergius Paulus. Now
neither Peter nor Paul in writing to magistrates and masters
discourage them from mastership. But when they write to the
bishops, how often, pray, do they advise not to compass lordship in
their duty, 7. e., in the inheritance of the Lord, not to circumvent the
brethren or throw a snare or be violent or the like! Clear, therefore,
is the word of Christ: Ye are not such. Even the apostles understood
it only as directed to themselves. What these cite from Paul
respecting conformity to the image of Christ applies equally to kings
and beggars ; nay, they are more conformed to the image of the
Son of God who in the height of power place themselves among the
lowest, as did the Son of God, than we who creep upon the ground.
Peter, they say, asserted that he had suffered, not ruled. He did that
for which he was sent, as has been said often enough. Catabaptists.
Finally we learn that a Christian may not be a magistrate from what
follows. The magistracy is a carnal office, a Christian is spiritual.
Magistrates’ home and dwelling are corporeal in this world, all
Christians’ are in heaven. The first are citizens of this world,
Christians of heaven. ‘The arms of the former are carnal and against
the flesh; of the latter, spiritual and against the machinations of the
devil. Earthly magistrates employ brass and iron, but Christians put
on the armor of God— truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation
and the word of God. In short, just as our head is disposed toward
us, so ought all the members of the body in their entirety to be
disposed through him, that there be no strife in the body to destroy
it. For every
 204 } ZWINGLI SELECTIONS. bi kingdom divided against
itself perishes. Since therefore Christ is as he is described, the
members must necessarily be such that the body may remain sound
and whole, to its own preservation and upbuilding. Reply. You stupid
seducers, for what more appropriate words can I apply to them?
‘The magistrates’ office is carnal, say they. They might say at least
that their power is directed toward the carnal and external. For are
those things carnal that are mentioned in Ex. xviii. 21: Provide out of
all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, who hate
covetousness. Therefore a judge ought above all men to be rightly
affected to all and unwavering, giving no decision in partiality or
hatred or fear or violence. But who can better do this than a most
devout person? But because he has to do with those who do
whatever they please, according to the impulse of the flesh, does
not make him less spiritual than those who think themselves so
mightily so. It actually occurs that a father has to judge his son, as
occurred to Saul, Brutus, Manlius and others. In such cases:what are
we to think a judge has most need of? Firmness, surely. But the
flesh does not supply that, but either desire for glory or contention,
and then it is not firmness, but persistency—such as that livid kind of
yours—or from love of righteousness, which can be from God alone.
A judge of this sort is more spiritual than those gentle little fellows
who preach to us a kind of womanish gentleness, especially since
there is so much evil among mortals. A judge of this sort is of more
advantage to the glory of God and the advancement of the public
peace than the whole Catabaptist heresy, though it should include its
thousands of thousands. Consequently a judge or magistrate ought
particularly to be a Christian and a spiritually-minded man. So God
himself deigned to call them by his own name Elohim, because they
should be most like God as high priests of righteousness, equity and
firmness. “ Their home” (7. ¢., judges’) “and habitation are corporeal
and in this world; Christians’ are in heaven.” As if those words
 REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 205 sounded to us of
heaven! Where are you, pray, when you say these things? In the
world, I think! So you, too, are in this world. If then a Christian may
not be a magistrate because his habitation is in this world, then you
are not Christians, for you are in the world. But howis a Christian’s
habitation in heaven? In that he lives there in contemplation and
moves thither in possession and in fruition, no doubt.* Therefore a
judge, since he is ever engaged in contemplation of God, since he is
every moment considering the safety of the people under him and
the rendering of exact justice to each, is he not in heaven, so far as
contemplation is concerned, rather than all the Catabaptists, who, if
they honored God, would not engage in counsels so foolish and
audacious. Finally, a judge who fears God will ascend after this life
unto him whose name and office he bears here, when those
seducers will all be sunk in the depth of their own evil baptism. Here
meanwhile, magistrates and judges, be ye mindful of your duties, for
not otherwise is horror of you conceived than because those who
render right to every one are so rare among you, especially in this
time when all abounds in violence and cruelty. But I have not time to
pursue this here. After this manner I reply to their grandiloquent
words—the citizenship of these is in this world, of Christians, in
heaven. For the Catabaptists thus far have no citizenship here, no
church in which they may live and watch, as a bishop and pastor
should, but they are like wolves that lie in wait in the forests, that
seize the prey and flee, that burn and then escape. The arms of
these are carnal and against the flesh, they say, but Christians’ are
spiritual and against the forts of the devil. ‘They do not need me as
a teacher here, for we see clearly enough that their wars are not
against the flesh, for in all they yield to it. So earthly magistrates,
they say, are armed with brass and iron; Catabaptists with hypocrisy
and evil speaking, lies, injury, discord, faithlessness, disaster and the
word of the devil—to give them altogether the gifts that are theirs in
* J. e., transfers his real possessions and interests thither.
 206 ZWINGLI SELECTIONS. place of what they claim for
themselves. “We ought in all to imitate Christ’’—who denies it? But
what prevents a pious judge from being, through the goodness and
grace of God, as like Christ as is a Catabaptist? Rather, as I have
said, he is the more able as he is the more like him, since when he
was placed aloft he thought of humble things. But the Catabaptist
ever assumes the highest in his own impudence. And the kingdom of
Christ is not divided when a Christian exercises the magistracy; itis
built up and united. This is clear from one example of Scripture,
many times repeated, where cohorts of slaves are said to have
embraced the faith of their masters. And it has been repeated by
many cities in these times of ours, for as soon as the gospel began
to be preached they gave opportunity to hear it to the people
entrusted to them by the Lord, just as when faithful Jehosaphat
ordered the law to be expounded by the priests and Levites,
supported by several cohorts, throughout all his dominions. They
opened a door by public command to the gospel and its ministers.
And they have shut the door upon the wolves and false apostles,
whether they have proceeded from the court of the pope or from the
dens and caves of the Catabaptists. By this deed, glory to God, great
growth of the gospel has at once been seen. But, as I have said,
among the Christians they keep agitating these perverse teachings
about not exercising the magistracy or taking the oath, so that if
possible they may sow their errors without punishment or fear.
Catabaptists. Seventh. We thus decide and determine concerning the
oath: 1. An oath is a confirmation among those who litigate or make
promises. And the law directs, 2, that it be done by the name of God
alone truly, and not falsely. But Christ, who teaches the perfection of
the law, forbids all oaths, whether true or false, whether by heaven
or earth or Jerusalem or oneself. And this for the reason which he
adds, saying, 3: For ye cannot make one hair white or black. So
notice! All swearing is prohibited because we are unable to perform
any of
 REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 207 those things we
promise with an oath, for the very least of our possessions we
cannot change. But some do not believe the simple precepts of God,
saying, 4: Since God swore to Abraham by himself who was God, at
the time when he promised to be kind to him and to be his God, if
only he kept his precepts, why may I not also swear when I make a
promise to any one? We reply: Hear what Scripture says—when God
wished to offer a promise to his heirs, with surety that his counsel
would not change, he interposed an oath, that we might hope.
Listen to the import of this Scripture: God has the power of taking
an oath, which he prohibits to you, for to him all things are possible.
God gave an oath to Abraham, says Scripture, to show that his
counsel would not change, that is, since no one could resist his
power, so it was necessary that he should preserve his oath. But we
cannot, as was shown above by the word of Christ, keep an oath or
do what we have sworn to do, so we ought not to swear. Again
some say that it is in the Old Testament, not in the New, that we are
forbidden to swear by God; in the New it is forbidden to swear by
heaven or earth or Jerusalem. To which we reply: Hear the
Scripture, 5: Who sweareth by the temple or heaven sweareth by
the throne of God and by him who sitteth therein. You see how to
swear by heaven is forbidden, for it is the throne of God; how much
more serious to swear by God himself! O blind and foolish, which is
the greater, the throne or he that sitteth thereon? Some even dare
say: If it is wrong to swear even when the Lord’s name is used to
support the truth, then Peter and Paul sinned, for they swore. To this
we reply, 6: Peter and Paul only testify to this, that by God himself a
promise was made to Abraham by an oath, but they themselves
make no promises, as the examples clearly reveal. For testifying and
swearing are entirely distinct. When an oath is taken something is
promised for the future. 7. To Abraham when an old man Christ was
promised, whom we received after a long interval. But when one
testifies he testifies to something present, whether
 208 ZWINGLI SELECTIONS. it is true and good or not. Just
as Simeon said to Mary about Christ and testified: Lo, this one is set
for the fall and rising ' again of many in Israel, and for a sign to be
spoken against. After this manner Christ taught us when he said: Let
your speech be yea, yea, and nay, nay, for whatsoever is added to
this is of evil. Christ warns us thus: Your speech ought to be yea,
yea, that we may not understand him as permitting an oath. Christ is
simply yea and nay. And all who seek him simply shall find him the
Amen. Reply. So far you have discussed what you decided about the
oath. I will then reply to each error in order by its number, to avoid
eternal repetition of your remarks. ı. Who, pray, has given you this
definition of an oath? You have indeed touched on the practice but
the essential nature of an oath you either do not know or maliciously
pass by. You tell only what an oath we use, but what it is or how
taken you say nothing of. If you should tell this frankly, an oath
would cause no great dread in men, but this would not suit your
designs, for you wish to destroy the magistracy and the power of
which it consists. Take away the oath and you have dissolved all
order. The burgomaster summons a senator who does not obey. You
say: Let him have the policeman arrest him. How willheobey? The
burgomaster sees a Catabaptist inciting the people to rebellion, and,
wishing to see that no evil befalls the state, he orders him not to
teach in secret (for they who are on the side of the gospel in
sincerity easily overcome him when he teaches openly). Or he
forbids him to teach publicly or privately, and orders the Catabaptist
to be arrested when he despises every order. But the policeman
does not obey. Who will arrest [the Catabaptist]—the burgomaster?
But the other is stronger. You see, good reader, all order is
overthrown when the oath is done away. Still, if the Scriptures
required this, I would not oppose, for he by whose providence all is
governed will never fail the house of Israel. But he wills not this
confusion. Give up the oath in any state then
 REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 209 according to the
Catabaptists’ desire, and at once the magistracy is removed and all
things follow as hey would have them. Good gods! What a confusion
and upturning of everything! For no one is so destitute of all wisdom
in an emergency as this class of men. They would have everything
rectified by their shouts, just like that physician, or rather quack,
who runs to his single cureall for every sickness. But, to come to the
point, an oath is an appeal to God in deciding or vouching for
something. This is not our definition, but his through whom we
swear. Ex. xxii. to thus commands: If a man deliver unto his
neighbor an ass or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep, and it die
or be hurt or driven away by robbers, no one seeing it, then shall an
oath of the Lord be between them both, that he with whom it was
left hath not put his hand to his neighbor’s goods, and the owner of
the beast shall accept the oath, and he with whom it was left shall
not restore aught. Here you see an oath is an appeal to God, for it
says: An oath of the Lord (or of God), for the word is (117°,
[Yahweh.] But this appeal is nothing but a vowing of himself to the
extreme punishment of the divine wrath if he is wrong. For since he
calls as witness him, of whom alone he confesses himself to be a
worshiper, and [of him] who can by no means be deceived, though
man may, he bears witness under penalty of losing him whom alone
he worships and who alone knows the hearts of men, that he is not
deceiving and will not deceive. This authority of Exodus deals with
the deciding [judicial] character of the oath. In Gen. xxi. 23 we have
the words of Abimelech to Abraham, as follows: Therefore swear
unto me by God that thou wilt not harm me nor my posterity, etc.
And afterward Abraham says: I will swear; and again: There they
both sware. Here again we have an attestation by God to do
something. For Abraham swore to do no harm, which oath he kept.
This, I say, is an oath when you define it. The Catabaptists call it a
“decision,” and omit the appeal to God, that the simple may not
reason thus among themselves.
 210 ZWINGLI SELECTIONS. How is it that God is not to be
invoked when the safety of a neighbor is in danger? An oath is
therefore a divine thing, a sacred anchor to which we flee when
human wisdom can go no farther. For who knows what is in man
except God alone? He therefore betrays him who swears falsely by
him. For a man is believed for the faith and religious trust which he
has in God to have spoken [truly] and to be ready to fulfill. And it is
through him that he deceives. For the benefit, then, of one’s
neighbor an oath is commanded by God. And since the whole law
and the prophets hang upon these two commands: Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy mind,
and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, then the oath itself is an
appeal to God, whom you uniquely love and serve, and is for the
advantage of the neighbor. Who then will dare against all the
authority of Scripture to deprive the people of God of the oath? God
cannot be offended by an oath, for he is called as a witness, so that
if we are not believed yet we may be believed, since we will on no
account betray him. For all will be praised who shall swear by him.
And the neighbor also will not be hurt, for the oath is given for his
advantage, that he may either know that to be true which he did not
know, or may be sure that what he deprecates will not be done by
his neighbor or what he asks will be granted. So far from a devout
man not being able to take an oath, he will be impious who refuses
when a matter worthy this attestation demands. But the whole
source of the error arises from their not seeing the opinion of Christ
in Matt. v. 33; indeed they do not know the very words. For the
German word “schwören,” to which they suppose the Greek
éxopxeiv, the Latin “jurare” is similar, has another signification than
what they suppose. For when we say in German “ Der schwört,” 7.
e., he swears, it is uncertain whether a formal oath is referred to or
whether one is just swearing offhand. The signification of this word
is twofold. The Latin “ jurare’’ is always used in a good sense, :. e.,
for asking a sacred obligation.
 REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. Zit But “dejerare” is
used for swearing, either truly or falsely, outside of sacred
obligations, which we might translate into German by a new word, “
zuschworen,” equivalent to the Greek word érvopxetv. So the Latin
has three words, “ jurare,” “ dejerare”’ and “ perjerare ;” the first
means a sacred obligation, the second to swear off-hand to anything
either falsely or truly, the third to swear falsely. Christ would not
forbid us to swear [“jurare’’], but to swear lightly or offhand
[“dejerare’”’]. But as these men do not, or will not, see this (I have
often set it forth to them), they willingly and wittingly stumble. But
to show this is the sense of Christ’s words I will examine the words
themselves, as follows: Ye have heard that it was said by them of
old, Thou shalt not zZmopkeiv, t. é., “ dejerare,” or swear lightly. Our
translation has it, “ Thou shalt not commit perjury,” which is not
wholly bad. For the word “ perjerare,’’ though never used in a good
sense, does not always indicate the violation or transgression or
pretended fulfilment of an oath, but sometimes it means “ dejerare,”
when “ dejerare ” is used in a bad sense. For “ dejerare”’ is
sometimes used in a good sense, as I have sometimes observed.
While therefore the words of Christ are: It was said by them of old,
Thou shalt not commit perjury, you will nowhere find among the
Hebrews this interdict of perjury, nor among the Greeks. But you will
find in Ex. xx. 7: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God
“temere,” which our translator translates “in vain.”’ You will find, Lev.
xix. 12: Ye shall not swear by my name falsely, where the Greek
interprets: ovx öueiode ro Öv6uari uov ex’ adixy, 1. Ey Ye shalt not
swear by my name to that which is wicked or false. The Latin
translates: Non perjurabis in nomine meo. You see how elegantly the
divine Jerome has used here the word perjurare for falsely “
dejerare,’’ not for violating an oath. It was therefore forbidden by
them of old (2) to take the name of God rashly, z. e., as it is
expounded in the passage from Leviticus— not to swear to a
falsehood. Soin them this opinion rose out of this understanding —if
the name of God were taken to that which
 212 ZWINGLI SELECTIONS. was true no harm was done
even though this was in ordinary and daily discourse, but that it was
not permitted to apply it either as “adjurare’’ or ‘ dejerare”’ to a
light, vain, false, fictitious or lying matter. This opinion it was that
Christ combatted, thinking that they ought not “ dejerare” either to
the true or false in ordinary discourse ; everything was to be said
and done so truly that if one said rai, that is, Yea, the neighbor
should know that what the other had said was true, or if he said
Nay, the neighbor should know that for truth. About the official oath
nothing is said here. For the passage runs: Ye have heard that it was
said by them of old, Thou shalt not forswear thyself. Where is this
said? Why, where the discussion is not about perjury, but of
“‘dejerare.” There it was permitted to take the name of God in
asseveration of the truth. There follows: Thou shalt pay thy vows.
Whither does this point? If the discussion is of official oath, where
then does the former passage, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, hold
in this sense: Thou shalt not fail thy oath? It is clear therefore that
he speaks about those oaths in which people undertook off-hand to
do something, just as if he had said: All that thou hast sworn to do
must be done correctly and lawfully, in order that by this he might
deter from rash vows and swearing, on the ground that there was
danger that the Lord would require it if you undertook anything
lightly. Then he follows with: But I say to you, swear not at all. But
of what swearing does he speak? Why, of that which was lawful for
the ancients when he wished to call upon the name of God for some
matter true and important. For we ought not in a matter true and
important adjure, dejure or promise anything of our own private
authority. Here no mention occurs of the oath required by public
authority. What follows establishes this. He says: Neither by heaven,
for it is God’s throne, nor by earth, for it is his footstool, nor by
Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, nor by thy head, for
thou canst not make one hair white or black. These examples show
that Christ did not refer to the
 REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 213 oath [required by
magistrates]. For which of the Hebrews ever took [such] an oath by
heaven, earth, Jerusalem or his head? On the other hand, who does
not swear off-hand by these? One man promises something by the
cross of Christ, another asseverates by heaven and earth. This then
is what Christ forbade. To this he directs the wind-up of his whole
discourse. Let your speech be such that yea means yea, and nay,
nay. There you have it. He does not speak about our oath; he does
not touch upon the forum or court or magistracy, but upon daily
conversation in our familiar intercourse. Perhaps I seem to some to
argue for this opinion tamely. But if they weigh as often as I have
done the passages from Exodus xx. and Leviticus xix, in the Hebrew,
the Greek and the Latin, I know they will think as I do. You see now
whether enough can be said against the Catabaptists, since they
have not considered the double sense of the word, but have made a
misunderstanding the basis of their error. (3) Nor is this a good
reason for refusing to make oath, that we cannot change a hair, for
if it were legitimate we might not reply with even a yea to our
neighbor. I have answered yea to many who asked me whether I
were going to lead an army against the Catabaptists, yet at no
moment was I secure from him who knocks equally at all doors. Still
I was right. Yet I was uncertain that I should live, much more write,
but no one will accuse me of falsehood. A brother promises another
to be on hand to-morrow. But because, taken down with fever, he
does not come, he is not accused of falsehood, nor does any one
blame him, for God gives him the excuse of necessity. So also when
he is summoned to an enquiry by the magistrate under oath, his
reply is not such that the power of almighty God cannot rightly
exempt him. For when Abraham swore to Abimelech himself, did he
not swear to do something? Why then did he do it? Especially when
the Catabaptists declare that he could not do anything, and assert
that Christ meant that? Under the
 214 ZWINGLI SELECTIONS. law, they say, it was permitted
to make oath. But Abraham made this reply on oath 430 years
before, and he was not under the law, but under faith. For the
apostle makes him our father by faith. It is clear then that Christ
spoke against that insanity under which many swear of their own
motion so frivolously and promise something as of their own
authority, or swear not to do what they could not avoid. They also
call to witness for any sort of thing, not only the names of heaven
and earth, but also of the living God, thus bringing contumely upon
God to their own evil. (4) When they seek to weaken that example
of God swearing to Abraham himself, do they not weaken
themselves? How often have they said in the foregoing that we are
to do what we see that Christ did? But they add, this is possible to
God—to do what he promised—but not to us. Must not the same be
said of Christ? So I say: Christ could love his enemies, I cannot. So I
must not. You see, good reader, that although they try and move
many things, yet in all it is shown that they have laid the foundations
of their error in some marked arrogance or malice or at least
ignorance, as in this case. For in their persuasive discourse from the
words: “ For thou art not able to change one hair,” they infer that by
this Christ would take away the solemn obligation known as an oath.
(5) They reason from the less to the greater: If one may not swear
by the throne, how much less by God himself who sitteth upon it?
Not inaptly do they infer, if they speak of perjury or of swearing
lightly. For if God forbids swearing lightly by his throne because it is
his, how much less should we swear lightly by him? But if they
speak of the obligation [of the oath], they infer wrongly that if we
may not assume an obligation by his throne we may not by himself.
An oath is not legitimately taken and as it ought to be, “any created
thing,” but “by God” himself. An oath is a religious matter; he who
makes oath binds himself to the sum of religion; in religion the chief
thing
 REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 215 is adoration. Just as
it would be illegitimate to infer: The throne is not to be adored,
therefore God is not. So it is no less illegitimate: By the throne oath
is not to be taken, therefore not by him who sits upon it. (6) When
they speak of the testimonies of Peter and Paul, they do not know of
what they chatter. They have not yet learned that the word “ testify”
is in most elegant use among the Hebrews for proclaiming a thing
boldly and constantly. That one may give testimony is clear from 1
Tim. v. 19: Against an elder receive not an accusation but before
two or three witnesses. I ask first whether the apostle speaks here
of Christian witnesses or the unbelieving? If of the unbelieving, then
every moment bishop and church are in danger. For the more holy
and innocent one is, the more do the perfidious assail him; and Paul
seems to have ill advised for the church and the bishop when he has
given the unbelieving the opportunity to testify. But if he speaks of
witnesses within the church, it results that a Christian may give
testimony. My second question then is—were they who gave
testimony sworn or not? If unsworn, again the bishop is in peril, for
there are many false brethren, many who the more vigilantly the
bishop watches, the more hostilely aim at his deposition. In short, it
is the fact in human affairs that there are few whom you can believe
unsworn ; indeed they say that among the Romans in reality Cato
was the only one whom they could believe without an oath. In fact it
is not very likely that within the church witnesses were ever received
without oath, for under the spirit and prudence that was powerful
with them they easily saw that if men unsworn were accustomed to
speak against the bishop, daily empty accusations and movements
would be aroused against the bishop. If you had weighed this
testimony a little more carefully, ye immersers not only of bodies,
but of souls, you would not teach that an oath may not be taken.
But what good do I hope from you? For whatever you assert you
affirm willingly and wittingly against the Scripture.
 216 ZWINGLI SELECTIONS. (7) When an oath is taken,
they say, something future is promised. But what is promised for the
future when he with whom his neighbor’s ass has been left swears
that he has not put his hand to his neighbor’s goods? See how
learned and prudently you dispose your trifles. At first an oath was a
decision only between litigants; now it is only a promise. What is
this. but babbling forth whatever comes into your head? When any
one testifies, they say, he testifies regarding the present, whether it
is true and good, just as Simeon testified: Lo, this one is placed for
the fall and rising again of many in Israel, etc. What if the apostles
testified regarding a past event—the crucified Christ—throughout the
world? And ye shall be my witnesses, not only in Judea and Samaria,
but to the ends of the earth. The apostles testified therefore to a
past event. Also Simeon testified to the future when he said that
Christ was to be a sign to be spoken against. I myself now testify to
you of the future, and faithful is the word, z. ¢., it is sure. I testify to
you, whether you accept the monitor or not, that the time will come
when they who are now led astray by you will recover their sight and
will be aroused against you like shepherds against a wolf or a mad
dog. Do not I also now testify? Why do you not insert in those laws
of yours something of your sweet attestation? That you may not be
ignorant of this, reader, listen to this: At Appenzell they use the
following tricks: Some Catabaptist throws himself down just as
though he were an epileptic; as long as he can he holds his breath
and pretends to be in ecstasy. ‘Those who have seen it say he
presents a horrible appearance. Finally, like one waking up, he
begins to testify about what he has heard and seen while in ecstasy.
They have all seen especially that Zwingli is in error about
catabaptism, and this opinion one pronounces gently and another
violently. They saw that the day of judgment was at hand two years
ago, and that catabaptism was a righteous and holy thing, and all
that kind of foolishness. You must not suppose that these tricks are
concocted by their com 
 ie c ih A 4 ic Fai “3 he a eon By A REFUTATION OF BAPTIST
TRICKS. 217 mon people; the leaders are the authors, as you may
know from the following example: At S. Gall there was a Catabaptist
girl of about 12 years or a little more. She was the daughter of a
right thinking man, as they say. He was preparing one day to carıy
some provisions (he is a provider of grain) when his daughter
warned him to remain at home, for he would see something
wonderful. A little after she fell down in the way I described above.
And when she was waking up she babbled out those empty ravings
of theirs. You see how she knew when she was going to fall. Why
did she not fall down at once when she saw her father leaving? Why,
she had not been taught all she should say when coming to
consciousness, nor been told of all that there was need of in
accomplishing the affair. Every now and then they use these tricks
still at Abtzell. And they call it an attestation, though it applies to
things past and future, so that those vain seducers of old women
cannot say that when any one testifies, it is of the present. Oh, how
sweetly and gently do. they arrange everything. Ye gods and
goddesses above, below and in between, be propitious to them! (8)
They rightly tell us that Christ taught that our speech should be ever
yea or nay, yet they do not seem clearly to understand it, or if they
understand they do not act upon it. For though in many places they
have said yea, it has never been yea. When those leaders are
banished against whom I write especially, and are asked for an oath,
they will not take oath, but say that through the faith which they
have in God they know they will never return, and yet having been
seen returned, they say the Father Jed me back through his will. I
know very well that it is the father of lies that brings them back ;
they pretend to know it is the heavenly Father. This is worth telling:
When that George (whom they all call a second Paul) of the house
of Jacob [Blaurock] was cudgeled with rods among us even to the
infernal gate, and was asked by the senate’s officer to take oath and
lift his hands [in affirmation], at first he refused, as he had 15
 218 ZWINGLI SELECTIONS. often done before and had
persisted in doing. Indeed, he had always acted as if he would
rather die than take an oath. The official of the senate then ordered
him to lift his hands and make oath at once when put to the
question, “or do you, policeman,”’ said he, “lead him back to
prison.”” But now, persuaded by rods, this George of the house of
Jacob raised his hands to heaven and followed the magistrate in the
reading of the oath. So here you have the question confronting you,
Catabaptists, whether that Paul of yours did or did not transgress
the law. The law forbids to swear; he swore, so he transgressed the
law. Hence this knot: You would be separated from the world, from
lies, from those who walk not according to the resurrection of Christ
but in dead works. How then is it that you have not excommunicated
that apostate? Your yea is not yea with you, nor your nay, nay, but
the contrary. Your yea is nay, and your nay, yea. You follow neither
Christ nor your ordinances. (9) Be these things said about oaths
which they would abrogate from human affairs only for the sake of
sedition and tumult? For in promising to the untaught the liberty of
the flesh, which neither Christ nor the apostles preached, they use
these arts of rebaptizing, separating and refusing an oath.
Meanwhile they do not consider what Paul says, Heb. vi. 16: An oath
is confirmation and the end of all strife. In saying this it is clear that
the divine apostle said not of those who are not within the church,
“an oath among them confirms or decides everything,” but of those
who are not without the church. Among these therefore he declares
that all is confirmed or decided by an oath. Nor do they consider, as
I have warned them, what was said above about witnesses testifying
about a bishop, nor this, that neither Christ nor the apostles ever
taught that the statement that every word stands or falls by the
utterance of two or three witnesses had been made void, as is easily
seen by Matt. xviii. 16 and Heb. x. 28. From these they might have
learned that an oath was never abolished, although they had no
word but:
 REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 219 Render to Cxsar
what is Czsar’s and to God what is his. So they are told to render to
Czesar what is his. But they owe the oath. ‘Therefore Christ orders it
to be given. But before we leave this a warning ought to be given
the tyrants of this world, who though they falsely boast in the name
of Christ yet do all to beat down his gospel, that they must not
suppose that by this defense of the oath, which I have furnished, an
opportunity is given for finding a defense of their own cruelty,
because nothing has been said thus far of the atrocity of abusing an
oath. To give in brief the sum of my opinion, I myself do not think an
oath ought to be demanded, or can be demanded, without
disturbing conscience, except when either all human attestation fails
or the safety of a neighor is gravely imperilled, and then only in case
that in no oath that we take is the name of God blasphemed. This
opinion of mine you will easily extract from what has been said. I
think that those trifles of the Catabaptists have been quite
thoroughly refuted. Now I go to other matters. PART THIRD. In this
part I undertake to treat of two things—the covenant or testament,
and election, that it may stand firm. Here I shall show with sure
testimony and argument that it was the custom of the apostles to
baptize the infants of believers. On the covenant then I speak after
the following fashion: Although the Architect of the universe created
this great world that it might have man as a Cultivator, yet before
any colony was sent out to any part, nay, before the future colonists
were born, the one hope of the whole race, the father of the human
race, rebelled against his Maker. But God was too merciful to visit
the betrayer according to the magnitude of his fault, and at the
same time too just to pass so daring a deed unpunished. So whom
he might have utterly destroyed he made wretched and full of
misfortune. When he drove him from Paradise he did not forbid him
to become a father, but simply that he should not be the father of
 220 ZWINGLI SELECTIONS. so noble a race as would have
been if he had not betrayed his trust. So then it came about, that
such as the offspring was, it was disseminated, as the cultivator, in
all the corners of the earth. But, however, it grew and multiplied,
and became divided into the various races of men, yet divine
Providence in a peculiar way designated one to be among all peoples
as especially sacred, as if it were a venerable priesthood among all.
Divine Providence selected this race for this purpose, that when it
would clear the world’s sin by the death of his Son, this Son should
take a body in which he could die from this nation. And this nation
he followed in all times with his great blessings, nay, he so cherished
and preserved it in every crisis that by observation of this alone one
might learn that God was about to accomplish through it something
exceedingly wonderful. So that whenever it was reduced to fewness
in numbers it suddenly sprang up anew; however it was afflicted, it
was ever restored. Adam believed that the son born to him was he
of whom God had said not long before that he should bruise the
head of the devil; so also his mother said: [‘ Cain” ] I have gotten a
man from the Lord, z. e., have obtained or received the man whom
God promised.* When she had another son, she named him Abel, z.
¢., superfluous, not out of scornful pride, but of gratulation, because
God had abundanty given what he had promised. As if she would
say: That munificent God has done more than he promised.t But ina
short time she who had deemed herself more than happy in her
sons was bereaved, for he who as the firstborn was the hope of his
parents, arose and killed his brother, who merited and expected no
such thing. So all fell out that everything depended upon one; Abel
was slain; Cain, the murderer, showed clearly by the working of his
conscience that out of him should not arise the one who was to
repair the fall of his parents. But God in his goodness succored them
in this calamity, and he sent them another son, as a * The name is
commonly interpreted ‘‘ acquisition.” + Modern scholars made the
name ‘‘Abel” mean “ breath” or ‘‘ vanity.” yA
 REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 221 branch from whom
posterity should flourish. So his name was Seth, 7. e., one placed or
given, for the Hebrews often used the word to place or give in the
sense “ given of God.” * From him then posterity was derived up to
Noah, who was the most just and unoffending of all in his times.
And when the human race was borne along by its cupidity and
violence, and by its boldness left nothing undone, he destroyed all in
a flood, since they would not hear Noah, who had been sent by God.
But Noah and his family alone were saved in the ark. The covenant
was renewed with him, in whom the whole human race was
renewed and spreading to all parts of the earth in order to its
cultivation. Meanwhile God was not unmindful of his counsel, and so
passing by all the rest, even the best of them, he embraced
Abraham and selected him out of all for this purpose, that from him
might come the posterity that would save not only the Jews, but the
whole human race. With him then he renewed the covenant he had
compacted with Adam, and made it clearer, for the nearer
approached the time of his Son’s advent, the more openly did he
speak with them. ‘Therefore he promised him first his own
goodness, that he would be his God, and he required of him in
return that he should excel, /. ¢., should walk before him in right
doing. He then promised that he would give him that blessed seed
that was to bruise the head of the old serpent and should raise to an
unfailing hope of safety the head of man bowed down by the
serpent. He promised also an innumerable posterity to be born to
him not only after the flesh, but also according to the spirit. Finally
he promised him Palestine. And as the sign of this covenant he
ordered circumcision. And the stranger and sojourner so grew that
they who had knowledge of the man could easily see that God was
with him. And God did all that he had promised. And when his
posterity had increased to an enormous multitude in Egypt, he
selected not one tribe alone, nor one man, as before, with which or
whom to keep the covenant he * << Seth’ is now interpreted ‘‘
substitution.”
 222 ZWINGLI SELECTIONS. had made, but although Judah
the son of Israel was designated as he from whom the Saviour
should be born, yet the rest of the tribes which came of Abraham
were not excluded from the covenant or from his friendship that he
had given to their father Abraham. Just as he did not change
anything with those who afterwards were of Judah, yet not of the
house of David, who was himself peculiarly marked out as the father
of the coming Christ, all were regarded as under the covenant who
had descended from Abraham. Now to return to the point. This, I
say, is the Israelitic or Hebrew people whom the Lord marked out as
his own peculiar people from all races and peoples, so that it should
tower above all peoples, just as the colleges of priests stood forth
prominent among that race and all races, as he testifies in his words
in Ex. xix. 5: Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and
keep my covenants, ye shall be my excellent people, :. ¢., my own
peculiar and sought-out people of all peoples although the whole
earth is mine. And ye shall bea kingdom consisting of priests to me
and a holy race. Here then the Catabaptists have a medicine or
plaster for their whole error, if they would suffer it to be applied. If
ye will hear my voice and keep my covenant, he says. Here is God
speaking synecdochically ! For when he addresses the whole people:
If ye hear my voice and keep my covenant, etc., which can be
referred to those alone who hear and can have desire to keep the
covenant, yet he no more excludes infants because they do not hear
or understand what is to be kept than they who were bound in sleep
or mentally. For they who are of one body are considered together.
But since infants are of the people of God, they are not excluded
because they cannot hear or understand. For that they are members
of one and the same body of God’s people is clear from this, that
circumcision, the sign of the covenant, is given them. For God with
his own mouth named both the covenant and the sign of the
covenant, because he who was of the covenant was sealed with this
sign. Paul in 1 Cor. xii. 13
 REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 223 says: In one spirit
we are all baptized into one body. But you Catabaptists yourselves
argue that if one comes to the Lord’s table, he must first through
baptism have become of Christ’s body. I do not say this because now
or hereafter I wish to teach that circumcision or baptism introduces
one into Christ, but that I may show that the circumcised or baptized
are in the body of God’s church, although I take no exception to the
change of form: We are baptized into one body, instead of: We who
are of one body are baptized in one baptism, for by nature being of
the body precedes bearing the mark of the body. So also Paul says:
In one spirit we were all baptized into one body. The grace of the
spirit by which we are admitted into union with the church precedes
the sign of union. For no one is sealed unless he has first been
enrolled in the army or service. I therefore am coming to this: If
they who are baptized in one baptism have come into one body,
doubtless they who were sealed with one circumcision, the sign of
the covenant—they were also gathered into one body. Hebrew
infants were sealed with circumcision, the sign of the covenant; they
were therefore under the covenant. Since they were under the
covenant, and God spoke with that body which was joined with him
by the covenant, whether we will or not we are compelled to confess
that the words: “If ye hear and keep ’’are a synecdoche by which
infants are not excluded, even though certain things do not apply to
them. I will give another example, to try if they can in any way be
made to see the truth. Plutarch teaches in his book, “ On the delay
of the divine justice,” * that a people, a city or a tribe is one, even
asamanisone. It therefore makes no difference if races, cities and
peoples are-not punished as soon as they transgress, for no *Eng.
trans. Plutarch on the delay of the Divine Fustice, trans. A. P.
Peabody. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1885. The Latin title is De sera
numinis vindicta. It is one of his Opera moralia; Eng. trans.,
Plutarch’s miscellanies and essays ; trans. revised by W. W. Goodwin,
Boston, 1872-74, 5 vols.
 224 ZWINGLI SELECTIONS. one can escape the hand of
the deity. So it follows that some people are punished many years
afterwards when none are living of those who sinned. But this is just
the same as if those who sinned themselves suffer punishment, for a
tribe, a city or a people is one body or, as it were, one man. So
consider it in this place that the children of Hebrews and of
Christians are of the same body as their parents, and when it is said
“ Hear, O Israel ’’—-and infants cannot hear—does not say that they
are not of the people of God. For although to-day they cannot, yet
some time they will act, hear and understand. And those are no less
regarded by God Limself as among the sons of God who are
destined to this, if when he speaks to their elders they themselves
do not understand. About which in the following, when we come to
election. There follows “Ye shall be my own peculiar people, sought
out.”” The Latin interpreter says: In peculium eritis mihi. Peter said
an acquired people, or, according to the Hebrew scheme, one of
acquisition. This is therefore the singular people of God, which he
bore upon his shoulders, which he lifted above all peril, just as an
eagle flies above all peril. By which metaphors the divine prophets
mean this: This people was ever loved by the Lord above all peoples
of the earth, was preserved and fostered, just as a father lifts his
children upon his shoulders and bears them, or a hen gathers her
chickens under her wings. But this is not to be so received as though
the Hebrew infants were not of the people of God, since they bore
the sign of that body not without the order of him who was the
author of the covenant. Of all peoples. By these words God secretly
implies election. For God has not bound his own choice or the
freedom of his will to any external or sign or deed. But in every
nation he who fears God and does what is right is accepted and is
pleasing to him. Acts x. 35. Whence from his selecting the Israelites
out of all peoples it does not follow that no one not of that people
was to be saved (for the election of God is ever free), but that
 REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 225 for his Son’s glory
he would make that people wonderful above all and peculiarly loved.
For the whole earth is mine, or, even though the whole earth is
mine. This also refers to the privilege and glory of this people, and
asserts election. For although all peoples of the whole earth are the
Lord’s, vet he selected Israel to be his part, possession and lot. Is.
xix. 25. Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my
hands, and Israel shall be my inheritance. And ye shall be my
sacerdotal kingdom, or as I have interpreted it, Ye shall be to me a
kingdom consisting of priests. For the Hebrew has kingdom of
priests, though to avoid the ambiguity is the sense given rightly in
the shape I adopt. Just as the ambassadors of Pyrrhus or some
other prince said that the Roman senate was composed of kings
because of the solemn dignity and majesty of the senators, so the
whole Israelite kingdom is said to be a kingdom of priests or
consisting of priests, both because of its system of ceremonies and
the excellence of its law and its prophets, and because of the
covenant and friendship which the Lord had with and for this state.
Therefore the Israelitic people excelled all others on the earth, both
in those matters which pertain to God and in those pertaining to
nobility of race. For as they were all sprung from one, so from them
sprung he who was made the only king and emperor of all nations.
What greater nobility or what equal grace is discoverable? Was it not
the greatest glory if one were sprung from that race, since God had
cherished it above all others, had made it his own and made a
covenant with it? And although all these matters are most noted
throughout Scripture, and everywhere treated, yet Paul above all
treats it in brief but clear words in Rom. ix. 3: I could wish, he says,
that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, who are my
kinsmen after the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the
adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service,
the promises, whose are the fathers and of whom is Christ as
concerning the flesh ; who
 226 ZWINGLI SELECTIONS. is above all God blessed for
ever. See how he makes out the Israelites to be adopted as sons of
God, even though very many of them had displeased the Lord. He
says theirs is the glory, for what majesty is equal to theirs, that they
are the people of God, sons of God, and that from them was born
the Saviour of all? Theirs are the covenants also, for whatever the
Lord has covenanted with the human race has been done through
this people. Whose is the giving of the law, for the highest and best
was not satisfied to enter into covenant or alliance with them
without fortifying his people by divine and righteous laws. Theirs,
too, was the service, for God showed them how worship could best
be done, in righteousness, equity and innocence. But it is not to be
believed that the service of animal sacrifice which he had pointed
out to them displeased him, though it meant only discipline,
circumspection and foreshadowing. He willed the discipline of this
service among them that they might have rites by which they might
less revolt to the service of idols than if such rites were absent. But
he wished to indicate by animal victims that there would come some
time a victim that would cleanse their souls. For he wished to
accustom them by bodily victims to the idea of a victim for
perfection and for their souls, that when they saw beasts
commanded for the external purification of the flesh they might
learn that a victim would come to purify their souls also. For they
could all understand that God’s care was first for the souls and then
for the body. ‘Theirs was the service, whether it represented the true
service or was itself the true service, for from them was born he
through whom all true worshipers and adorers should approach to
God. Zhe promises also were made to them alone; I say nothing
about the sibyl’s poems, whether they were produced among them
or introduced. Still this people of God stood for this, that whatever
good he wished to bestow upon the human race he gave or
promised through this quasi priesthood. It was then the special
people whose were the promises, even though he spoke also
through sibyl
 REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 227 prophetesses
among the Gentiles, that we might recognize the liberty of his will
and the authority of his election.* But theirs are the fathers also,
men filled with God, some of whom, though almost the whole world
was living a bestial life (for where God is not worshiped what
difference is there between man and beast?) and was following its
own raging affections, alone honored God, believed his word and
submitted themselves to his will. Others boldly announced the good
things which through the in-breathing of the Holy Spirit they saw
coming to the obedient and Godfearing, or the evil in store for the
rebellious, impious and contumacious. These, I say, were the
fathers, whom we call patriarchs and prophets, to whom the
promises were made, and they came of the Israelites, the people of
God. In short (for why should we use much testimony in so clear a
matter?), I mean this: The Israelites were God’s people with whom
he entered into covenant, whom he made especially his own, to
whom also he gave a sign of his covenant from the least to the
greatest, because high and low were in covenant with him, were his
people and were of his church. And when, in giving command or
prohibition, he addresses that whole people, the infants are not
excluded because they understand nothing of what is said or
commanded, but he speaks synecdochically, so that so far from
excluding that part which could receive nothing that came because
of the times or its age he even includes it, just as when a person
acts with a man he acts also with all the family and his posterity. So
that he often addresses the whole people as one man: Hear, O
Israel, and: Say to the house of Jacob, etc. Therefore the same
covenant which he entered into with Israel he has in these latter
days entered into with us, that we may be one people with them,
one church, and may have also one covenant. I suppose that some
will vainly cry out: See how that fellow would make Jews of us,
though we have always been told * This remark shows how
extremely liberally-minded Zwingli was.
 228 ZWINGLI SELECTIONS. of two peoples, two churches
and two covenants. See Gen. xxv. 23 and Gal. iv. 22. To which my
answer is: Whenever there is held in Scripture that there are two
distinct and diverse peoples, necessarily one of these is not the
people of God. For both when the Jews were God’s people and we
who are Gentiles were not, and now when we who are Gentiles are
God’s people and the Jews are cut off, there is only one people of
God, not two. In Gen. xxv. 23 we read: Two peoples shall be
separated from thy bowels, it is not to be understood as though both
were and would be his people at the same time. But Jacob he loved
and Esau he hated before they struggled in her womb. Therefore
ever one and the same people is that which cherishes the one true
and only God, from whatsoever parents it was born. And again, they
are diverse who follow a diverse cultus, though one and the same
birth- pang produce them. When therefore he spoke of two peoples
formerly, one was Jewish, the other Gentile. The Jew worshiped the
high God, but the Gentile was impious. Now when we speak of the
church of the Gentiles, it is the same now as that former one of the
Jews, and the people of the Gentiles or the impious are [now] the
people of Israel. For we are put in their place after they have been
cut off, not in some place next them. But two covenants are spoken
of, not that they are two diverse covenants, for this would
necessitate not only two diverse peoples, but also two gods. Since
some ancients did not see this, they taught that two diverse gods
existed, one of the Old, the other of the New Testament; the one
cruel, the other gentle and kind.* So Paul indeed speaks of two
testaments, but the one he calls a testament by a misuse of
language, when he wishes them to be understood who, although
they were under that one eternal covenant and testament, yet on
account of the externals which they tenaciously retained betrayed
the light and Christ himself. Paul therefore called the way of these a
testament, not that it was a true testament, but by a copying or *
So taught, e. g., the Gnostics.
 REFUTATION OF BAPTIST TRICKS. 229 imitation of those
who so named it. For this is the testament, that that God Almighty is
ours, but we are his people. Now before Christ’s coming there were
many types, but these were not themselves a testament, but were
foreshadowings of the light to come from the testament itself. They
therefore who according to the gross nature of man held more
tenaciously to foreshadowings than was right, preferred to lose the
light rather than the foreshadowings, not unlike that madman who
seriously complained that his friends labored for his healing.* After
the manner of these then Paul said there were two testaments, one
leading to servitude, the other to liberty. For some supposed that
they should consider that salvation could be obtained by acts and
ceremonies. Yet others saw that by mercy alone was approach to
God through him who was to come. But this was the testament, that
an appendix to the testament foreshadowing the one to come. So
therefore Paul calls the appendix to the testament the testament.
For the same testament, 7. ¢., the same mercy of God promised to
the world through his Son, saved Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses,
David, which saved also Peter, Paul, Ananias,t Gamaliel and Stephen.
Now let me adduce Scripture testimony, by which all becomes clear.
In Matt. viii. 11 Christ says: And I say unto you, many shall come
from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. In these words it is disclosed to us
with whom we shall be united—with those whose are the promises,
the testament, the covenant, the fathers, prophets, all things, as all
things are ours through Christ. It follows therefore that there is one
church of them and us. This way tends that most luminous parable
of the master who summoned workmen to cultivate his vineyard,
some of whom came early, some seasonably, others after almost the
whole day * Referring probably to some case of recent occurrence
and well known to his readers. + The one mentioned as visiting Saul
in his blindness (Acts ix. 10-19.
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