13 Heinrich Bullinger’s Decades

Almost 50 years after the classic work by Walter Hollweg on Heinrich Bullinger’s Decades, there was a resurgence of interest in the theology and life, including a major biography, of the man who led the Zurich church from 1531 until his death in 1575 (Hollweg 1956; Büsser 2004–5). Following the 500th anniversary of Bullinger’s birth in 2004, conference volumes and collected essays appeared brimming with new research agendas (Campi 2004; Campi and Opitz 2007). The work of Peter Opitz on Bullinger’s theology has proved particularly influential, with his monograph on the Decades followed by a critical edition of the Sermonum Decades quinque (Opitz 2004; 2008). Other scholars such as Emidio Campi, Christian Moser, and recently Daniël Timmerman have greatly enhanced our understanding of Bullinger’s exegetical methods and historical vision (Campi 2005; Moser 2005; Timmerman 2015; Campi and Opitz 2007; Bollinger 2004). An earlier focus on Bullinger’s covenantal thought by Wayne Baker and others has given way to a broader exploration of the reformer’s theology, exegesis and ecclesiology (Baker 1980; McCoy and Baker 1991; Baker 1998: 359–76; van ’t Spijker 2007 Gordon 2004; Mock 2017; Pak 2018).

Serious impediments remain, however, for those seeking access to the reformer’s work. In comparison with Calvin, only a small portion of the Zurich church leader’s body of writing is available in translation. The result has been that the text under consideration in this chapter, the Decades, remains the best known of Bullinger’s numerous works, largely on account of the Parker Society’s nineteenth-century reprint of the sixteenth-century translation by H.I. (Bullinger 1849–52). Inaccessibility is a major problem in placing Heinrich Bullinger in his doctrinal and historical contexts (Gordon 2001).

Bullinger was born before John Calvin and died more than ten years after the Genevan reformer. Although in the history of Reformed thought Calvin absolutely dwarfs his friend and mentor, this was not the case in the sixteenth century. Similarly, Bullinger continues to dwell in the shadow of Huldrych Zwingli to the extent that he is often referred to as ‘the successor’, even though his tenure as head of the Zurich church was far longer.

Heinrich Bullinger was devoted to defending and propagating what he passionately held to be the ancient apostolic faith of the church (Taplin 2004: 67–99). He saw himself as akin to the bishops of the early church struggling against heresy, and in particular he looked to his model, Augustine of Hippo. It was not that Bullinger assumed any ritual role—in fact he rigorously held to a democratic model of authority (Bollinger 2004: 175f.). Nevertheless, in the correspondence from English Reformers he was referred to as the bishop of Zurich. Whatever the title, there was no doubt that Bullinger was head of the church and exercised considerable authority over ecclesiastical affairs in Zurich. Formally he held the position of chief preacher in the Grossmünster, but his role within the state and ecclesia was pervasive.

Bullinger assembled in Zurich an impressive circle of learned men who included Konrad Pellikan, Theodor Bibliander, Rudolf Gwalther, and others who engaged in teaching, preaching, and scholarship (Hobbs 2008: 452–511). Together they formed a sodality committed to the teaching of the Reformed faith. Bullinger was the primus inter pares, the leading spokesman who presented the views of the Zurich church on foreign and domestic matters. The best evidence for his work in this respect is the massive body of correspondence that has survived and continues to be edited and printed (Henrich 2004: 231–41). Bullinger’s reputation was such that his letters and works spread across Europe, and he was consulted by senior scholars, churchmen, and political figures, as well as by students and people of humble status (Mühling 2001).

The kinship of reform was not limited to Zurich. Bullinger was frequently in contact with the other leading figures of the Reformed churches to discuss current events and theological questions and to share news. These figures shared a well-established network that came to include John Calvin, with whom Bullinger, for the most part, enjoyed a good relationship (Gordon 2009). The two men were entirely different in temperament: Bullinger was cautious and patient, Calvin less so. Nevertheless, Calvin saw in the Zurich churchman a mentor and very much the senior figure in their relationship. There was extensive correspondence between them, often carrying significant disagreements, but they agreed to keep their differences to themselves for the sake of the wider unity of the church.

Within Zurich, Bullinger’s duties were extraordinary. He oversaw the lives and work of the rural and urban clergy (over 100 parishes), and he was in constant negotiations with the city magistrates over a range of issues including poor relief, provision of schools, and limits of preaching on political themes (Bächtold 1982; Biel 1991; Gordon 1992a). Bullinger held a considerable authority in city precisely because of his effective working relationship with Zurich’s rulers, who in turn trusted him. Harmony did not, however, always prevail, and Bullinger was not shy about taking on his political masters when he disagreed with their policies, in particular their unwillingness to fund the church.

The public platform of Heinrich Bullinger without doubt was the pulpit in the Grossmünster, where he delivered sermons several times a week (Büsser 1985). Bullinger’s practice was to preach lectio continua during various services, so that there would be several Bible series continuing at the same time. Naturally, depending on the book of the Bible, it could take a good deal of time before the series was completed. The sermons would then form the basis for Bullinger’s Bible commentaries that would follow from Froschauer’s press (Opitz 2009). The result was an impressive oeuvre. We have very little in the way of manuscript material for the sermons, but Bullinger recorded in his diary the books on which he preached (Egli 1904).

Bullinger’s most famous work, the Decades, consists of five books of ten sermons, as the title suggests, written between 1549 and 1552. Yet, the sermons are not quite what one might expect. They were written in Latin, and were in many cases implausibly long for even the most patient audience. They are highly didactic in character, intended to instruct students training for the ministry in the essentials of Reformed theology. That purpose, however, changed once the Decades was translated into English, Dutch, German, and French and distributed widely across Europe, where it became known as the Hausbuch. At that point the Decades ceased to be solely a book of instruction in doctrine and became more a devotional work on how to live the Christian life. The Decades, therefore, had multiples lives in Reformed culture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and in vernacular forms it became a bestseller, above all in the Low Countries and England (MacCulloch 2004: 891–934); Kirby 2007; Eular 2006).

At 800 folios the Decades is Bullinger’s longest theological book. It was the work of a mature writer and preacher. Unlike Calvin and his Institutes, Bullinger never revised the Decades, which remained in the form they were printed between 1549 and 1552. ‘Bullinger performed his intended task’, Peter Opitz has written, ‘in a multifaceted manner, realizing his many and varied roles as preacher, pastor, exegetist, teacher, advocate, polemicist, guardian of Zwingli’s legacy, and evangelical irenicist’ (Opitz 2004: 102). His chosen format was well known: Bullinger used the medieval tradition of sermon collections to instruct those who would preach the Word of God to the faithful (p. 103).

On the nature of the sermons themselves, the work of Opitz is most persuasive. Bullinger maintained a literary fiction that they were delivered, often remarking at the end that he had gone on for more than an hour and a half, but it is unlikely that the sermons were ever delivered in the form in which they appear in the Decades. Opitz points to the fact that Bullinger makes no mention of the sermons in his record of his preaching in his diary, which was an extremely accurate account of his activity in the Grossmünster (Opitz 2004: 103). However, certain aspects of the literary texts suggest that the printed works may indeed reflect sermons that Bullinger actually did deliver. There is helpful internal evidence that links the Decades to Bullinger’s preaching style. For example, the Latin of the Decades is fairly straightforward, written in the didactic manner in which Bullinger would have preached to students (Opitz 2004: 104).

Neither the relative simplicity of the language in the Decades nor their homiletic form conceals Bullinger’s deft weaving together of multiple theological and pastoral strands. In his arrangement of his loci he sought both to expound scripture and explain the historical doctrine of the church in order to instruct and edify (Millet 2007; Peterson 2007; van den Belt 2011; Stephens 2008; 2009). In the latter case the topics covered include the covenant, the Ten Commandments, the Creeds, the Lord’s Prayer, and the sacraments. His purpose, therefore, was not to produce a systematic work of theology, but one that focused on instructing at various levels. Far from being systematic in the manner of Calvin’s Institutes, Bullinger frequently repeats material in his sermons and often directs the reader to arguments previously made or to follow. The Decades have a catechetical quality, and Opitz has suggested that an important source for Bullinger was Augustine’s ‘De catechizandis rudibus’ (Opitz 2006: 7). In his diary entry for March 1549, Bullinger remarks that the first two decades covered the high point of faith (Opitz 2006: 8).

As a preface to the Decades Bullinger appended a short treatise on the four ecumenical councils of the ancient church (Nicaea 325, Constantinople 384, Ephesus 434, and Chalcedon 454), along with the Creeds. Although it is easy to overlook this material and proceed directly to the Decades, Bullinger’s account of the early church was essential to what followed. In the Latin preface to the Decades, he wrote that he added the councils and creeds in order to demonstrate the harmony of Protestant theology with the teaching of the ancient church (Bullinger 1849–52: i.12).

In his account of the formation of the Nicene Creed, Bullinger emphasized the unity of the church in adopting a faith consistent with the Apostles’ Creed, which all had professed. It was the ‘wicked Arius’ who ‘sprang up, corrupting the pureness of the faith’ who forced the fathers of the church to prepare another Creed to refute his ‘novelties’ (Bullinger 1849–52: i.13). Of the creeds that followed at the other three general councils ‘neither was anything changed in the doctrine of the apostles’, nor

was any new thing added, which the Churches of Christ had not before taken and believed out of the Holy Scripture: but the ancient truth, being wisely made manifest by confessions made of faith, was profitably and godly set against the new corruptions of heretics.

(Bullinger 1849–52: i.13)

What distinguished the true Creeds of the church for Bullinger was how they followed the writings of the prophets and apostles as a ‘rule’, so that the fathers did not ‘suffer anything to be done there according to their own minds’. Such fidelity to the rule of faith was, the Zurich church leader heavily implied, the measure of his Decades. Bullinger wrote of four general councils, not six, because he did not include the two at Constantinople (552 and 682), which although important did not, in his view, determine anything not established by the previous four.

The first Decade was devoted to the Word of God, and opened with two sermons on its nature and form of revelation before proceeding to its manifestation in faith (sermons 3–9) and love (sermon 10). In his treatment of the ancient councils of the church Bullinger stated that it was his intention to shape the first Decade around the Apostolic Creed, which he does in sermons 7–9. Bullinger’s treatment of the Apostles’ Creed (or ‘Symbol’) was essential to his demonstration of harmony with the rule of faith of the ancient church as the rule for Christian teaching (Opitz 2004: 106). Among its diverse characteristics, the Decades were an apologia for the Zurich church.

The second Decade was devoted to the law, and Bullinger treated the Two Tables at considerable length, extending his treatment of the Decalogue to sermon 4 of the third Decade. The order of his theological structure becomes clear as Bullinger demonstrated that the law follows from the Word of God. Following his careful discussion of each of the laws, Bullinger turned his attention in the third Decade to the ceremonial and judicial laws, the abrogation of the law, Christian liberty, and sin.

The fourth Decade continues the theme of Christian response by treating Gospel and repentance (sermons 31 and 32). This ends the second thematic part of the Decades as Bullinger turned to his account of God, knowledge of God, providence and predestination, the Trinity, Christ, and the human soul (sermons 33–40). In his discussion of God, Bullinger enumerated five ways in which the limited minds of humans are accommodated.

The fifth Decade treated the church, its ministry, and sacraments. In addition Bullinger provided a catechetical treatment of the Lord’s Supper.

Bullinger’s understanding of God merges into the treatment of providence and predestination and then leads to the teaching on true worship; the teaching on Christ leads into an explanation of the question of what it means to call oneself a Christian; the teaching on the Spirit concerns God’s work in humanity; finally, the teaching of the Church treats the being and acting of humanity and the community in the body of Christ.

(Bullinger 1852, ed. Opitz 2007: 107)

A significant text that does not appear in the English translation of the Decades is the dedication of the first Decade to Bullinger’s colleagues in Zurich. Bullinger opened with account of the terrible times in which Christians and the Zurich church found themselves. Everywhere there is evidence of God’s anger for the unfaithfulness of the people. It was, therefore, worthwhile for him to address his colleagues on the nature of their offices (Campi, Roth and Stotz 2006: 20). The clergy must be ever prepared to root out evil and sin. Sadly in many churches there is no desire to follow God’s commandments. A good shepherd knows what is appropriate to his own church. God’s wrath will not be appeased by any form of external ritual, for the church must turn to the true faith.

Those who truly repent come in humility before the Lord, but such remorse is insufficient unless one accepts that sins are forgiven through Christ. One cannot only acknowledge one’s sins. Who truly believes, believes that through Christ sinners are reconciled with God. This should lead to prayer. Therefore, Bullinger writes to his colleagues and friends, it was their shared duty to bring the people to prayer (Campi, Roth and Stotz 2006: 27). The end is to provide the people with assurance, and to remove from them all other forms of certainty and comfort. In every case, Bullinger insisted that the pastors must examine themselves first before teaching the people.

Bullinger summarized for his colleagues: God’s evident anger can only be appeased when all sin is acknowledged and confessed and the Zurich ministers must throw themselves before God seeking his mercy. Such forgiveness is possible only when it is accepted that it comes on account of no human merit. The dedication of the first ten sermons reflected not only Bullinger’s closeness to his colleagues, but the pastoral nature of the Decades as a whole. Bullinger’s sermons were to instruct, but above all they were to foster piety and amendment of life in those entrusted with the preaching of the Gospel.

Bullinger’s theme is clearly established in the opening words of the first sermon:

All the decrees of Christian faith, with every way how to live rightly, well and holily, and finally, all true and heavenly wisdom, have always been fetched out of the testimonies, or determinate judgments, of the Word of God by the faithful and those who are called by God to the ministry of the churches.

(Bullinger 1849–52: i.36)

The Word of God is truth, Bullinger wrote, ‘but God is the only well-spring of truth: therefore God is the beginning and cause of the Word of God’ (i.38).

From the beginning of the world God taught the ‘holy fathers’, who then taught their children, ensuring that no age was without the Word. Bullinger offers a biblical history of God’s address to the ancient peoples, the foundation of the ‘tradition’. All that was taught by the holy fathers was put into writing by Moses, who ‘declared most largely the revelation of the Word of God made unto men, and whatsoever the Word of God contains and teaches: in which, as we have the manifold oracles of God himself, so we have the most illuminating testimonies, sentences, examples, and decrees of the most excellent, ancient, holy, wise, and greatest men of the world’ (Bullinger 1849–52: i.47).

Bullinger’s purpose in his long opening sermon was to treat the Word of God, what it is, to whom it was revealed, and its history. In the second sermon on the topic he developed the theme of to whom it was revealed. The end of the revelation of God’s Word is that it may teach humanity ‘what manner God is towards men’ and how God ‘would have them be saved’. To that end ‘who Christ is, and by what means salvation comes’ Scripture teaches a ‘perfect doctrine’, Bullinger wrote following Paul (Bullinger 1849–52: i.60).

In a direct address to the pastors for whom the Decades were prepared, Bullinger argued that it is God’s will that his Word be understood. For ‘in speaking to his servants he used a most common kind of speech, wherewithal even the very uneducated were acquainted. Neither do we read that the prophets and apostles, the servants of God and interpreters of his high and everlasting wisdom, did use any strange kind of speech’ (i.71). There is some ‘darkness’ in the scriptures which arises from a variety of issues relating to ignorance of languages and literary forms, but these can be overcome by ‘study, diligence, faith, and the means of skillful interpreters’ (i.71).

The response of men and women to God’s Word is in faith, which Bullinger called a settled and undoubted persuasion in God and his Word (i.82). It is faith alone that allows people to see what God has revealed. Bullinger set down two principles to be accepted: first, belief that all good things come from God through Christ. Secondly, ‘that in the Word of God’,

there is set down all truth necessary to be believed; and that true faith believes all that is declared in the scriptures. For it tells us that God is; what manner he is; what God’s works are; what his judgments, his will, his commandments, his promises, and what his warnings are; finally, whatsoever is profitable or necessary to be believed; that God’s Word is wholly laid down for us, which is received by true faith, believing all things that are written in the law and the prophets, in the gospel and writings of the apostles. (i.96)

This teaching on the nature of the Word, Bullinger continued, was articulated in the articles of the apostles, which formed the ‘sum of faith’, and were the subject of sermons seven to nine. He divided his account into four parts, the first three treating the nature of the triune God and the fourth the fruits of faith. He described the articles as a ‘symbol’, a badge, a marker of the true faith, ‘because by the laying together of the apostles’ doctrine, they were made and written to be a rule and an abridgement of the faith preached by the apostles, and received of the Catholic or universal church’. It is not known, Bullinger, continued, who first wrote the articles.

In his treatment of love of God and neighbour Bullinger was emphatic about the proper order of loci. It is the love of God by which he loved humanity that is the foundation of all human love of him and other people. ‘The love of God works in us a will’, Bullinger wrote, ‘to frame ourselves wholly to the will and ordinances of him whom we do heartily love’ (i.182). It is such love that makes love of neighbour possible, which in true Bullinger fashion had a special emphasis on the poor and sick. He quoted Lactantius:

It is a chief part of humanity and a great good deed, to take in hand to heal and cherish the sick, that have nobody to help them. Finally, that last and greatest duty of piety is the burial of strangers and of the poor.

(Bullinger 1849–52: i.191)

It is not enough, Bullinger concluded, to understand what love of neighbor entailed, although such knowledge was necessary: ‘but rather we must love him exceedingly, and above what I am able to say’ (i.191).

Decade Two opens with a treatment of the law, a subject Bullinger occupied himself with through to the beginning of the fourth Decade. Some laws are of God, others of nature. The latter is the conscience, by which men and women know what they should and should not do. The conscience does not, however, know God, only general principles of religion impressed upon humans, as well as qualities of goodness and virtue (ii.194). Bullinger treated at length the nature of virtue among the ancients, concluding:

We may gather, that even in the gentiles’ minds there was a certain knowledge of God, and some precepts whereby they knew what to desire, and what to eschew, which notwithstanding they did corrupt, and make somewhat misty with the evil affections and corrupt judgments of the flesh. For which cause God also, beside the law of nature did ordain other means to declare his will. (ii.205)

In distinction from the law of nature the law of God has been fully revealed and clearly teaches what humans are to do and not do, and how God will punish those who are not obedient. Bullinger treated the first two commandments in sermon 12. He wrote of God’s law being divided into moral, ceremonial, and judicial.

The moral law is that which teaches men right conduct and sets down the nature of virtue. It declares how great righteousness, godliness, obedience, and perfectness God looks for at the hands of us mortal men. The ceremonial laws are those that are given concerning the order of holy and ecclesiastical rights and ceremonies, and also touching the ministries and things assigned to ministry and other holy uses. Last of all, the judicial laws give rules concerning matters to be judged between men for the preservation of public peace, equity, and civil honesty. (ii.210)

Unlike the ceremonial laws, the moral laws were not abrogated by Christ. The Ten Commandments, Bullinger argued, are the ‘absolute and everlasting rule of true righteousness and all virtues set down for all places, men, and ages, frame themselves by’ (ii.211). The sum of the Ten Commandments is for men and women to show their love for God and one another, and that is what God requires at all times, and everywhere and of all people. The distinction between the moral and the judicial and ceremonial is its particular place in the Ten Commandments. The ceremonial and judicial were revealed to Moses by the angels, and then by Moses to the people. The moral law, however, was revealed by God himself on Mount Sinai. God spoke them ‘word for word’ (ii.212).

Bullinger’s extended treatment of the law in the second and third Decade is a discourse on the whole of religion. He addressed all the different forms of the law and their place in Christian revelation. An example of this approach is found in his discussion of the fourth commandment concerning the Sabbath, which he interprets as belonging to the outward and inward service of the Lord. The Sabbath has various meanings, above all that humans should rest and cease from labor that is for their own purposes. It is a particular day set aside to allow God to work in the individual.

Together with the inner spiritual growth through rest, Bullinger understood the Sabbath to be instituted by God in order that men and women might have the proper outward form of religion (Bullinger 1849–52: ii.255). Because the worshipping of God cannot be without a time, he wrote, ‘wherein we should abstain from outward or bodily works: but so yet that we should have leisure to attend to our spiritual business. For that cause is the outward rest commanded, that the spiritual work should not be hindered by the bodily business’ (ii.255). By outward form of religion, Bullinger referenced the public reading and expounding of scripture, public prayers, and petitions, the administration of the sacraments, and the ‘gathering of every man’s benevolence’.

The practical approach taken by the head of the Zurich church to the exposition of the laws is evident in his concluding words of sermon 14. Having declared that the first table of the commandments sets down the true worship of God, Bullinger concluded ‘they are not the children of God who know his mind, but they who do it’ (Bullinger 1849–52: ii.267).

Having treated the laws, Bullinger wrote that one must turn to those matters that follow on the law: Christian liberty, good works, sin, and the punishment of sin (iii.300). The abrogation of the law, which he treats in sermon 28, is the foundation of Christian liberty. What is this liberty? Bullinger argued that it is the grievous bondage from which the Lord has delivered his elect. The Son of God came into the world, overcame Satan, and brought his own into the kingdom where he is Lord and King. Further, he has ‘adopted us to be the sons of God’ and took away the bitter curse of the law’ (iii.305). With the liberty of the Christian the hatred of the law remains no more, although the weakness of the flesh does. God bestows the free gift of the Holy Spirit in order that men and women should willingly submit to the will of the Lord. Finally,

The same our Lord and king has taken from the shoulders of his elect the burden of the law, the types and figures, with the costs belonging to the same. He has forbidden us, being at once set at liberty, to entangle ourselves again with any laws and traditions of men. Of all this taken together we offer this definition: to deliver is to make free and to set at liberty from bondage. He is free, or manumissed, that being delivered from bondage enjoys his liberty: therefore manumission, or liberty, is nothing other than the state of him that is made free. (iii.305)

The treatment of Christian liberty was taken up by Bullinger to offer an extended discourse on how such freedom can be abused. The Christian is not made free in Christ to offend another. The root of such offence is the confusion of the Spirit and the flesh. Those who take human traditions and actions and grant them spiritual significance bind the consciences of others by imposing upon them unacceptable duties and obligations. Following Pauline advice, Bullinger admonished that freedom must be tempered by love.

The misuse of freedom leads to the discussion of works. Bullinger naturally denied any role for works in the salvation of persons, but he devoted attention to the place of works in the sanctified life. The only good works are those that come from God, who through the Spirit works in the hearts of the regenerate. ‘And God by his Spirit and by faith in Christ’, Bullinger writes,

[r]enews all men, so that they, being once regenerate, do no longer their own, that is, the works of the flesh, but the works of the Spirit, of grace, and of God himself. For the works of them that are regenerate do grow up by the good Spirit of God that is within them; which Spirit, even as the sap gives strength to trees to bring forth fruit, doth in a like manner cause sundry virtues to bud and branch out of us men. (iii.322)

In the subsequent treatment of sin Bullinger faced the old question of the role of God in the fall of humanity. If God created Adam, the objection runs, and Adam committed sin, is God not the author of sin? Drawing on a large body of scriptural evidence Bullinger asserted that God is not the cause of evil, for it was the corruptible will and the temptations of the Devil ‘that inflames our depraved nature to sin’ (iii.373). Nevertheless, the questions continue and Bullinger sought to enumerate them. Why, he continued, would God create a person so frail that he would by his own judgment fall into sin? Only God, he replied, is good by necessity, not humanity. Adam was a man, and not a God. Yet he was not created for death, but for life and blessedness, for he was the image of God. In the garden he was perfect, lacking in nothing, although God knew that Adam would fall. Such foreknowledge, Bullinger is adamant, is not to be confused with necessity. That God knew did not cause the fall to happen (iii.377).

Sin, Bullinger observed, is an offence against God’s law, and the law is nothing other than the divine will. That will was first expressed in the law of nature, then by the two tables of stone, and finally by the preaching of the Holy Gospel. All three forms express God’s desire that humans be holy, innocent, and therefore saved. Bullinger then proceeds to a forensic analysis of the types of sins to be found among humans. In particular, through his treatment of Original Sin and the sin against the Holy Spirit he explores the character and consequences of human disobedience. Sermon 30, however, ends on a more pastoral note as Bullinger asked why God does not withdraw punishment even when a sin has been forgiven. ‘God has laid bodily death’, he wrote, ‘as a punishment upon the body of man; and after the forgiveness of sins has not taken it away, but left it in the body to be a means to the exercise of righteousness’ (Bullinger 1849–52: iii.431).

The first two sermons of the fourth Decade, on the Gospel and Repentance, continue the themes in Bullinger’s treatment of Christian liberty and sin. The Zurich church leader, however, makes a certain transition by stating that the Gospel is the exposition of the law. Bullinger’s discussion of the Gospel in sermon 30 has a strong catechetical quality. His lengthy definition of the Gospel is an arresting statement of faith that expresses much of his teaching in the Decades. The Gospel, he wrote, is the heavenly preaching of grace to humanity wherein it is declared to a sinful world that God is pleased with his Son, Jesus Christ. His only-begotten son was promised to the ancient fathers and now revealed to men and women. God ‘in him hath given’

[a]ll things belonging to a blessed life and eternal salvation, as he that was for us men incarnate, dead and raised from the dead again, was taken up into heaven, and is made our only Lord and Savior, upon condition that we, acknowledging our sins, do soundly and surely believe in him.

(Bullinger 1849–52: iv.4)

In sum, what Bullinger desired to say about the Gospel is how all humans are slaves to sin and will suffer eternal death, a fate unavoidable except through the free grace of God. This has been achieved through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is the only-begotten Son of God. Alone those who believe in him will be partakers in the resurrection. Whoever receives the Gospel through true preaching is justified. That means that they are cleansed of sin, sanctified, and ‘made heirs to eternal life’. Those who do not receive Christ will perish in their unbelief, for ‘the wrath of God abides upon them’ (iv.54). Bullinger linked repentance closely to the preaching of the Gospel, calling it an ‘unfeigned turning unto God’ (iv.57).

Bullinger dedicated the final eight sermons of the fourth Decade to Edward VI in 1550. Apart from the usual praise of princes and warnings against the temptations of power, Bullinger writes mostly about the Council of Trent, denying that any recent general council of the church has achieved anything. And while there might be hope for a general council lawfully called, the only ones summoned are by the bishop of Rome (Bullinger 1849–52: iv.118).

There can be no reform of the church if it is dedicated to ensuring the authority of the papacy in all things and in asserting that those who disagree are heretics. All churches should be reformed by the Word of God, not by popes. ‘Now the Lord’, Bullinger wrote,

gave his church a charge of Reformation: he commanded unto it the sound doctrine of the gospel, together with the lawful use of his holy sacraments; he also condemned all false doctrine, that I mean is contrary to the Gospel; he damned the abuse and profanation of the sacraments and delivered to us the true worship of God, and proscribed the false. (iv.120)

Bullinger admonished Edward to follow the wisdom of the Word and not of human traditions. All wisdom is revealed in scripture.

At the beginning of the 33rd sermon, Bullinger offered a review of his topics thus far. The summary marks the transition to his treatment of knowledge of God. Having treated the divinity in diverse ways to this point, Bullinger wants to make the case for the scriptural basis of the triune Godhead, which he regards as the essential foundation of the Christian faith. Bullinger took on the subject of God himself, discussing how we know that he exists, his names, and historical relationship with the patriarchs, Moses, and the Israelites. He did not spend much time on God’s nature outside of his relationship with humanity, but in discussing the ‘I am’, there is a turn to what that statement meant. ‘What else is this’, Bullinger wrote,

[t]han if he had said ‘I am the uncreated essence, being of myself from before all beginning, which gives being to all things, and keeps all things in being. I am strong and almighty God. I do not abuse my might for I am gentle and merciful. I love my creatures and man especially.’ (iv.146)

In an extensive treatment of the Trinity Bullinger argued that it was known to the patriarchs and revealed in full by Christ. All three persons of the Trinity are to be honoured equally. This has been the teaching of the church from its earliest times and forms part of the ‘rule of faith’. It is expressed in the Apostles’ Creed in which Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are confessed. Yet, what we can know of the Trinity is limited by ‘appointed bounds about the knowledge of God, which to pass is hurtful for us; indeed, it is punished with assured death’ (iv.173).

Bullinger continued his treatment of how God is known by considering God as creator and sustainer. Through God’s providence men and women know of his goodness towards them, for it demonstrates the lengths to which he goes to preserve and defend his people. This discussion leads directly to predestination. Providence is the manner by which God governs the world, foreknowledge is his knowledge of what will happen, and predestination is the decree of who is to be saved (iv.185).

Scripture, Bullinger argued, is clear on predestination.

God has by his eternal and unchangeable counsel foreordained who are to be saved, and who are to be condemned. Now the end or the decree of life and death is short and manifest to all the godly. The end of predestination or forordination, is Christ, the Son of God the Father. For God has ordained and decreed to save all, how many whosoever have communion and fellowship with Christ, his only begotten Son. Now the faithful verily have fellowship with Christ and the unfaithful are strangers from Christ. (iv.186)

Those who are saved are not so because of any merit that God foresaw in them. True faith is required of the elect. Being called, they receive their calling by faith and mould themselves to Christ. Such things, Bullinger, summed up, reveal the beauteous and wonderful work of creation by the eternal God, who governs by wise providence and with a good will that is revealed in his gracious decision to elect some to salvation. Bullinger turns to the human response, which is in adoration, ‘to bequeath ourselves wholly unto God and cleave inseparably to him upon him only and alone to hang in all things and to have recourse unto him in all our necessities whatsoever’ (iv.199).

In the fourth Decade Bullinger followed the knowledge and nature of God as creator and Trinity with God’s manifestation of his power in the world. The human response in adoration and worship follows, and then Bullinger’s account of Christ. The long 36th sermon on the Son of God follows the account of Christ in the Apostles’ Creed. Bullinger is especially concerned to defend the relationship of the two natures of Christ and refute the idea that they were in any way mixed (communicatio idiomatum). Bullinger had several opponents in his gaze. Those radicals and antitrinitarians who denied the equality of the Son with the Father, and the Lutherans, with whom Zurich was locked in battle over the nature of Christ. Bullinger put his argument in a pithy confession:

Touching the Son of God, let us firmly hold and undoubtedly believe that he is consubstantial (or of the same substance) with his Father, and therefore true God. That the selfsame Son became incarnate for us and was made man. Howbeit so that these natures are neither confounded between themselves nor yet divided. For we do believe one and the same our Lord Jesus Christ to be true God and true man. (iv.242)

Bullinger treated Christ king and priest before turning to the Holy Spirit in sermon 38, where he explains in detail the manner in which the third person of the Trinity proceeds from the first two. He addressed the twofold proceeding of the Spirit, one to humans and the other from the Father and the Son. The first is a temporal proceeding that sanctifies the faithful, while the latter is eternal. It is the power of the Holy Spirit to sanctify all that would be sanctified. The heavenly Father sanctifies with his grace’, Bullinger writes, ‘through the blood of his beloved son, and sanctification is derived to us and sealed by the Spirit. Therefore the holy Trinity, being one God, sanctifies us’ (iv.312). Instead of offering a conclusion to his sermon, Bullinger cited at length Tertullian on the Holy Spirit. He was adamant that the three persons of the Trinity are fully declared in scripture, but he had an evident anxiety that the unity of God will be lost. The tension is found in the final admonition of the sermon. ‘And when sins are forgiven in the Holy Spirit’:

We believe that this benefit and all other benefits of our blessedness are inseparably given and bestowed upon us from one, only, true, living, and everlasting God, who is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

(Bullinger 1849–52: iv.326)

The sermons of the fifth Decade focus on the themes of church (two sermons), ministry (two), and sacraments (four). In addition, Bullinger had sermons on prayer and the institutions of the church.

On the church itself, Bullinger treated at length its character and the extent of its authority. His essential principle lies in the church’s constant profession that it is nothing without Christ, by whose blood it is sanctified. It is in error when in any manner the church departs from the teaching of Christ, to whom it must ‘cleave’ as king, redeemer, and high priest. Although Bullinger approached the subject from several perspectives, his definition in sermon 41 is perhaps his best expression of that which he has argued.

For it [the Church] executes (as I have just said) that power that it has received from God most carefully and faithfully to the end that it may serve God, that it may be holy, and that it may please him. And I reckon some of her studies specially: first of all it worships, calling upon, loving, and serving the one God in Trinity. That it takes nothing in hand without having consulted with the Word of this true God. That she orders all her doings according to that rule of God’s Word; that she judges by the Word of God; and by the same frames all her buildings, and those built by maintaining them, and when they fall down they are repaired or restored. (v.47)

When Bullinger began the Decades in 1549 he was concluding the agreement with John Calvin known as the Consensus Tigurinus. Both men compromised to make the document possible, and the fifth Decade reflects much of Bullinger’s mature thinking on the sacraments, a topic far too complex for this survey (Stephens 2006: 62–9). Part of what is found in the Decades (sermons 46 and 47) came from an earlier unpublished tract on the sacraments written by Bullinger in 1546. It has long been recognized that Bullinger both defended Zwingli’s sacramental theology and developed a less dichotomous line of thought (Euler 2014). His willingness, for example, to speak of a closer relationship between the inner and outward character of the sacraments is evident in sermon 46: ‘For they [the sacraments]’,

are called external or outward signs, because they are corporeal or bodily, entering outwardly into those senses whereby they are perceived. Contrariwise, we call the things signified inward things, not that the things lie hidden included in the signs but because they are perceived by the inward faculties, or motions of the mind, wrought in men by the Spirit of God. (v.315)

Although Bullinger objected to the language of the sacraments as ‘instruments’ of God’s grace, he held a higher view of baptism and the Lord’s Supper than Zwingli, who tended to have a negative sense of the two. Bullinger repeatedly speaks of the ‘dignity’ of the sacraments. In the seventh sermon the Zurich minister roundly denies that the sacraments have any value in themselves, but he continues to write that the sacraments were instituted by God as testimonies of his grace, they are the seals of his promises, which are always true.

For immediately upon the beginning of the world he began to show himself as such a one unto us, and shows himself more and more through the course of life. We receive him and comprehend him spiritually and by faith. Therefore, when we are partakers of the sacraments, he proceeds to communicate himself to us in a special manner, that is to say, proper to the sacraments. (v.315)

The Decades are sermons organized according to a series of loci according to the themes of Word of God, faith, God, and the church (Dowey 2004: 51–2). They were written by a man at the height of his powers ready to defend the teaching and practices of the Zurich church, having made a wider agreement on the Lord’s Supper with John Calvin. The Decades was an unusual work in the sixteenth century. As mentioned above, it was modelled on the sermon collections of the late Middle Ages, but it was more than that. The sermons are a clear expression of Bullinger’s theology, in particular his Christological reading of the Old Testament, the emphasis on good works, the Christian life, and the sacraments. The tone of the sermons is pastoral, as Bullinger concerned himself with instructing both clergy and laity how to live faithfully and obediently. The sermons frequently overlap, and Bullinger often refers to points made elsewhere. The didactic quality of the Decades is unmistakable. At the same time, the sermons have a strong rhetorical quality; Bullinger is not merely instructing but exhorting his listeners/readers.

For Bullinger, Christ is the scopus of the covenant of grace between the Old and New Testaments (Opitz 2004b: 112). This position was a hallmark of Reformation Zurich theology. Repeatedly the church leader stressed the fulfilment of the Old Testament in the New, but not by a simple subordination. For example, when, discussing the Trinity, he writes that the triune God was known to the patriarchs, it is clear that the head of the Zurich church was eager to demonstrate the total integration of the two Testaments.

The creeds placed at the beginning of the Decades are not decorative. They demonstrate Bullinger’s determination to show the harmony of the Zurich church with apostolic Christianity. We have seen that throughout the Decades the Apostles’ Creed, which he regarded as the purest statement of the faith, is the barometer against which all teaching is measured. In addition, the text is full of quotations from Lactantius, Cyprian, Tertullian, Augustine, and a host of other luminaries of the early church upon whom Bullinger calls as witness for the antiquity of his teaching. Only rarely are any contemporaries mentioned—notably Zwingli, whom Bullinger referenced extensively in his treatment of the sacraments.

It does little justice to reduce the Decades to a core theological idea. Bullinger worked his way between a range of topics that are carefully interwoven in texts that are essentially exhortative. The Decades is a work of and for the church. It is a passionate plea for the sanctified life in which men and women become more Christ-like. It is a hymn to an all-powerful, all-loving, and merciful God who is in an intimate relationship with humanity, of whom much is expected. Bullinger covered the spectrum of Reformed theological thought in the middle decade of the sixteenth century, defining the Christian life and church, seeking harmony with his colleagues, fighting Rome, and demonstrating the apostolic faith of the Zurich church.