Menno Simons · 101 of 109

A VERY SINCERE EPISTLE TO MARTIN MICRON. · Part 2

Again: "By the life of Pharaoh (mark) ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither," Gen. 42:15

Again: "Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name"(mark), Deut. 10:20.

Again, Christ says, Neither by heaven, nor by earth, neither by Jerusalem, neither by thy head, Matt 6:34, nor by the tem­ple, nor by the altar, Matt. 23:16, 18. Read also Jas. 6:12. Again, neither with the world, nor by God, nor by the gospel, nor by a cross, &c.

Behold, thus an oath is always sworn by something. But this is not the case with an affirmation which is made without an oath.

An affirmation may be made without an oath; but an oath cannot be made without an affirmation. And thus Christ and Paul often affirmed their words with strong tes­timony, but did not swear to them. For nowhere did they say, "This we swear or affirm by the truth," or; "By God," or, "By our soul, but solely, verily, or, God is my witness, and other like affirming words.

As I thus humbly, plainly and strictly abide by the holy word, commandments, and prohibitions of the Lord; and, as I point my neighbors, who would do things in the fear of God, honestly to yea, and nay, as the mouth of Truth has commanded me and all true christians to do; and, as I sincerely strive to instruct, according to my small talent, the poor, blind world in the true, divine knowledge, through Jesus Christ without any respect of person, and to point out the falsehood of anti‑christ and the old serpent, according to the truth, thus to lead them to eternal peace, by his grace; and as the doctrine shows its fruit in many, as may be seen; therefore it is that they are so enraged at me, that neither Turk nor Tartar, neither tyrant nor fiend under the whole heavens, no matter how ungodly he be, is so hated as I, persecuted man, am hated of the world through this defaming, false, blood‑thirsty writing and crying of the learned, who, for the sake of their bel­lies, teach the broad, easy way, with all the false prophets. He who created me knows what love I bear to you and all my ene­mies and slanderers. If I could serve you with my life, unto righteousness, I would at all times be willing and prepared to do so, by the grace of God. This I write with a good conscience, as if before God, in Christ Jesus.

Dear Micron, do consider how you, out of mere hatred of the truth, treat me, old, in­firm man, quite contrary to all truth, as also contrary to the virtuous, pious nature of the divine, christian love which would curtail nor harm none, to the dishonor of the Almighty, great God. But what will it benefit? The innocent, defenseless Lamb must be hated and murdered in his mem­bers.

I will let you teach and counsel (as you will not be convinced) your church, the world, to fight and retaliate as did Moses and the patriarchs, according to your man­ner; teach them to punish, scatter, imprison and destroy their enemies; to adjudge the criminals, no matter whether they repent or not, as you write. Teach them also to swear and be sworn, after the manner that Moses commanded the Israelites. But I shall and will, by the grace of God, faith­fully teach and counsel all truly regener­ated children of God and followers of Christ, both rulers and subjects, according to the sure word of the holy gospel, to use no other sword than the one Christ Jesus and his holy apostles used, to be merciful unto the penitent sinners, as Christ is mer­ciful unto us; mercifully to punish the im­penitent, and to admonish them in love, as Christ admonished us; and scrupulously to stand by their yea and nay, as the true Teacher and Executor of the New Testa­ment, the ever blessed Christ Jesus himself, has distinctly commanded and taught us with his guileless mouth; no matter what the consequences to my person may be. Dear Micron, reflect and see, if I have not rightly pointed to the Scriptures; and con­sider, also, by what Spirit you have slan­dered me. True is the wise man's word: "Who is able to stand before envy?" Prov. 27:4.

Eighthly, it is manifest that throughout your book you have labored with all your might to make the truth of Christ, taught by us to the measure of our talent, obnoxious and hateful to the reader and hearer, by my person, and to make the falsehood of anti‑christ, taught by you, pleasing and taking, by your own person. You have so presented the matter, but alas, not with God's Spirit, that if I had been a tyro in the church for three or four months, I would probably have done about as I now did, according to your untrue, partial writing.

But thus the righteous Lord makes mani­fest unto the unsuspecting and innocent, the impure Spirit, heart, bitterness, ambi­tion, hatred, envy, falsehood, and infamy, as also their false doctrine of all such peo­ple who so cover up their ravenous heart with a sheepskin, as you do, that they can scarcely perceive it. The venomous, deadly arrows and lies directed against me show to the whole world what kind of a spirit is in you. Now it is Menno's incon­stancy, anon, his ignorance, or deceitful in­tellect, or artful roguery, Menno's lies, &c., and you also say that I should have changed my doctrine. In short, I do not know what you wrote that was not written to the dis­honor of God, of the saints, of the truth, of the church and of myself.

I thank my God, with joyful heart, that by his grace he kept me these twenty­ one years in one doctrine and foundation of faith without any change, notwithstand­ing that I was unworthily called to my hard service, in such perilous, dark, erring times, as all those will admit who have walked with me in Christ Jesus during the time of my pilgrimage; who have from the beginning read my humble works and books, and heard my admonitions.

It may be that I am an ignorant, coarse and unintelligent man, but I have never in my life boasted of great intellectuality, learning, arts and science; but I do boast that I, in my weakness, seek the praise of the Lord, and the salvation of my soul, and that I have learned so much in the school of God, by his grace, that I know that the whole, undivided Christ is God's first and only begotten, and true Son, and that those who contradict this are the spirits of anti­christ; that all blasphemers against God, profaners against the saints, adulteraters of the Scriptures, willful liars, public de­famers, enviers of the pious, ambitious, blood‑thirsty men are ungodly persons, and not christians. Again, that all those who hear and follow Christ, and submissively, obediently and conscientiously follow his word, ordinances and unblamable example in faith, by virtue of the new birth, are the children of God, and that they shall for­ever inherit the kingdom of honor. I trust that I shall stand before the throne of High Majesty in his grace, with this my gross ignorance, which is wisdom in the sight of God, but hidden from the world, while all high minded and bold hearted, who are so wise in their own sight, shall hear: "I never knew you; Depart from me, ye that work iniquity, Matt. 7:22. My dear friend Micron, take heed.

Again, I trust that I shall be found inno­cent before the Lord and his judgment of the charge, artful roguery, which you pre­fer against me; for I have dealt with you with no more artful and roguish heart than those do who, daily for the sake of the tes­timony of Christ and of their consciences, are, with a glad and joyous mind, martyr­ized; notwithstanding this I have to hear from you this unkind, false charge made before all the world. But the Lord will be our judge.

Again, as to the charge of falsehood, which you prefer against me, this is my plain answer: I am also concluded in the word, "All men are liars," Ps. 118:11; Rom. 3:4. I trust that I would submit to be killed before I should willfully lie, be it slightly or grossly. I hate falsehood. I hated falsehood, even before I knew of whose seed it was. I shall also, in my old age, by the grace of the Lord, avoid it, so far as possible, since I know its origin or father.

O, Micron, Micron, how pecisely do you treat me, as the false prophets and stiff­necked Jews, out of mere hatred of the truth, treated the good Jeremiah, saying, "Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah," and not pay attention to his words, Jer. 18:18. John the Baptist had to hear from the Pharisees and Scribes that he was pos­sessed of the devil; and Christ Jesus was called by‑ them a wine‑bibber and, glutton, Matt. 11:18, that he cast out devils in the name of Beelzebub, as they said, Luke 11:16, that they might by these means lead the ignorant, reckless people from the truth, and keep them in their leaven and vain, false doctrine. Just so you treat me, in­firm man, out of mere hatred of the truth. For if you could but daub me with so much filthy falsehood, that they would be affright­ed at me, then you would think that the cause of Christ was already lost. Thus blind is poor, foolish flesh which is not overshadowed by the brightness of the Lord.

You may fulfill the measure of your fa­thers, so long as the hand of God does not intercede, yet I am assured in my heart, by the grace of the Lord, that as Jeremiah, John and Christ remained Jeremiah, John and Christ however much they were belied by their enviers, and persecuted by them, out of hatred against the truth, I also, by the merciful grace and power of God, will remain the same Menno Simon in Christ which I was, in my weakness, for more than twenty years, however infamously you may belie me, and depict or portray me, out of hatred against the truth; as also, that as the false prophets, scribes, and Pharisees were inimical to truth, and were blood‑thirsty men, and therefore died with. out God, you also are without God and his grace, and that you, together with all false hypocrites, will receive your reward, unless you sincerely repent; something of which there is but a very faint hope, because you so willfully suppress the truth in regard to our discussion, tell so many falsehoods, so wittingly adulterate the Scriptures, and act so deceitfully against your neighbor in his absence; something which no regenerated christian will or can do. For the word stands firm. Reflect, and see if I do not truly point out your errors.

Ninthly, it is manifest that you have com­mitted against yourself and your soul which was purchased at such a precious price, the grossest kind of shame and in­jury; for these reasons, first, because by your writing you have made yourself an open accuser, reprover, nay, teacher and instructor of God the Father, of Christ the Son, of Gabriel the angel, and of all the apostles and saints of the New Testament. The Father confesses Christ Jesus to be his beloved Son, without any division; Christ confesses the Father to be his Father; and the angel and the apostles together with all the other witnesses unanimously testify the same, in regard to the visible, palpable, dying, and resurrected Christ; and you boldly say and write, that he is not. I will leave you to consider, in the fear of God, whether you are not such an one as I have here written.

Secondly, you prove yourself to be an open corrupter of the Holy Scriptures. For you write, "That Christ is of David's seed, Rom. 1:8; that he is of a woman." whilst all the unadulterated texts have it: Born of the seed (that is, of the generation) of David. Born of a woman, as may be seen by the Lutheran and Zurian translations.

Thirdly, you write, "That Christ has par­taken of the flesh and blood of the children," Heb. 2:14; and the text says nothing more than "flesh and blood" without the addition of, "of the children;" if we accept of the Scriptural meaning of the pronoun, eo­rundem, that is, of the same.

Fourthly, you write at different places, "That Christ has taken on him Abraham's seed" (in praeterito, that is, in the past tense), while the text says, He takes on him (in praesenti, that is, in the present tense). Whosoever does not believe it may read the text, Heb. 2:16.

***

Since it is manifest that you have pre­meditatedly adulterated the holy, divine Scriptures and made yourself a translation and Scripture (as Tatian made himself a gospel, as you write) of your own, that you may the better maintain your anti‑chris­tian doctrine before the unsuspicious and ignorant, therefore I will leave it to the judgment of all the impartial, reasonable readers of all the world what kind of a teacher and writer you are.

O, dear Micron, consider to what you have already come. It appears as if you had nearly lost both the Scriptures and common sense by the deadly disease of your ambitious and envious partiality. If you should thus defame his imperial majesty, and his son Philip, as you have defamed the heavenly Father and his blessed Son Christ, in your writing, and should plainly say, No, king Philip is not the son of the em­peror; but he is the son of another person, and is only called the son of the emperor; if you should, besides, adulterate their public mandates, sentences, and command­ments, as you have done the adduced Script­ures, and the plain ordinances, word, and commandments of Christ concerning bap­tism, and the oath; and moreover, should deride, upbraid, scorn, and belie their sworn courtiers, and faithful servants, because they honored and respected the emperor as the true father of Philip, and Philip as the true son of the emperor, and because they faithfully respected and obeyed their man­dates, sentences and policies, O, Lord, what ado there would be made about you, and what blood‑songs there would be sung. But of what reward you are now deserving, and must expect in due time from God the Lord, because you so lamentably blas­pheme the Emperor of all emperors; the God of heaven and of earth, and his blessed Son Christ Jesus, because you adulterate and break their heavenly mandates, ordi­nances, and explicit and plain command­ments, and because you so lamentably slander, upbraid, belie, hate, and persecute their faithful servants by your indiscreet writing, I will leave to Almighty God and his judgment. Dear friend, ponder upon what is here said.

First, you have made yourself to be an open, perfidious falsifier;, for you call on God as a witness (which in my opinion is the same as an oath), that you have given a true narration of the discussion; and the first thing you wrote in your book is an un­truth. For you write: "A true Narration." And how quite untrue it is, God knows, as also you yourself, and we. We have also partly touched on this, above, in the de­scription of the discussion.

Secondly, you have quoted in your book my first words and very brotherly admoni­tion: "If you now hear more powerful truths and surer foundation from us than you have heard hitherto, then you ought not to seek your own praise and honor; but you ought cordially to seek the honor and praise of the Lord, &c.," and have coupled a gross falsehood therewith, and rendered it as if I should have said, that you had sought your own honor and praise by your writing, in England. Something which, at that time, I had never thought about; for I knew no more about you than I would have known had you never been in the world. Yet, you garble my words to make it appear so. I will leave yourself to judge whether it was the Spirit of truth and of godly, faithful love, or the spirit of impure falsehood and faithless envy which inspired you thus to write.

Thirdly, you write, "That Herman Back­ereel had already proved to me that Mary was a daughter of David." It seems that you are not at all ashamed to tell a false­hood, if it can but make your cause appar­ently true. He who can prove to me, by virtue of the Scriptures that Mary was a daughter of David, must have a Bible and Scripture different from ours; for it can not be found in our Bibles and Scriptures. I asked no proof of you nor of Herman, as it was irrelevant. And now you make it falsely appear that I should have said that she was not, and that Herman proved to me that she was. This is certainly a false­hood.

Fourthly, you write, "That you frequent­ly confessed to us that the Son of God died for us;" while I dare say and testify with a good conscience that you never touched up­on it during the whole discussion. But when I asked you at the last discussion, whether you did not still call the man Christ (who you said had no Father) the Son of God! You answered, yes. When I asked again, why you called him so, what kind of an answer I received to that ques­tion, was related above. Yet you dare falsely write down, "That you frequently confessed it to us," as has been heard.

Though you were not ashamed of telling gross falsehoods against us before men, because you are aware that you can not sufficiently abuse us, in the sight of the world, which is your church; yet one would reasonably expect that you would be ashamed to do so before your God who tries the hearts and reins; and that you would remember that it is written, that "A thief is not so bad as a man accustomed to lies;" "for he can never attain to honor," Eccl. 20:27, 28; that the lying mouth kill­eth the soul, Wis. 1:11; that God will de­stroy the liars, Ps. 5:6, and that their part will be in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, Rev. 21:8.

Fifthly, you write, "That you maintained the purity of your Christ against us;" while, before the Lord, before you, and be­fore us all, it did not occur otherwise than I related in the narration of the first dis­cussion, concerning the inconsistency that you had an impure Christ:

I was also surprised at the fact that there was not sufficient common sense left in you to consider that you might have made it so by your partial writing and gross false­hoods, that many of the readers, and par­ticularly of those present at the discussion, might suspect you of writing falsehoods out of mere partiality, and might thereby leave your church. But the spirit of wisdom, alas, has not kissed the dwelling-place of your soul, nor greeted it with the friendly lips of its truth.

Fourthly, you have also made yourself a very unsteady, wavering and inconstant person, whom one can not overtake on one foundation and doctrine. For, at the time of the discussion you confessed, "That Christ, from everlasting, was born of the Father; that he was, also, from everlasting, seated, divided, and separated from the Father. Now you have changed yourself, and you write, that he remained in the Fa­ther. Mark your first change.

Secondly, you confessed two Sons in Christ; and now you say there is but one; yet, in fact two, if we impartially consider your doctrine.

Thirdly, you confessed that the crucified Christ who died for us, was not God's Son; and now you write that you frequently con­fessed that he was. Mark your second and third changes; and yet you write that he had no Father. Whether this is, Simplex veritates oratio, the word of truth is plain, as you write, I will leave yourself to consider. It must be admitted that if one can not see lightminded unsteadiness and false duplicity in this, he must be quite un­intelligent and blind.

Fourthly, you confessed, "That Christ should not be worshipped according to his human nature;" and now you say, "That he should be." Mark your fourth change; yet you confess that he was an earthly man, of earth, who was born of Adam's seed. If this be not idolatry we may truly say that the Scriptures deceive us.

Whether so many confessions and re­callings are consistent with a sincere, pious, constant, and wellfounded teacher and writer (as you want to be), who, out of am­bition falsely denies it all, I will herewith leave all impartial readers to judge.

Fifthly, you have made yourself, before all intelligent persons, a very proud, self-conceited, bold and ambitious boaster, be­cause you sing such great triumphs and glory in your book, while it is manifest to God, to yourself and to all who were pres­ent that you had already lost the whole point in discussion. It would also be man­ifest to the whole world, if you had but im­partially told it as it happened; for you confessed two Sons in Christ, and that the crucified one was not God's Son, as you, in fact, do yet; whereby you had already fin­ished the discussion. You could not an­swer a word to all the Scriptures I read, whereby I testified unto you, that the Son of man, the visible, palpable, eating, drink­ing, suffering, dying, and arisen Christ, was also God's own, true Son, nor could you reply a word to my four convincing an­swers, with which I overcame your unscript­ural question concerning the birth from everlasting, separation, &c., all of which you have left out of your " Narration."

Neither did you say anything about the union of the two sons, which you generally called two natures, in our discussion, which is now your strongest Scripture, although, in fact, it is not found in the whole Bible. For if you had made mention of it at the time of the discussion, you would, by the assistance of the Lord, have received an answer. And, besides, having told such abominable falsehoods, you have changed the order of the discussion, garbled my words, misinterpreted them, abbreviated or added to them, at pleasure, and changed your own, whereby it is manifest before God and man that your discussion with us, and particularly the account thereof, was not prompted by an humble, convert­ed, and contrite heart; not by the Spirit and love of Christ, but by an ambitious, self-conceited, proud, obdurate flesh and mind. I will leave it to the all‑knowing God, and to yourself (to whom are best known your seeking) as also, to the pious reader, who walks in the truth, whether this is not the truth. O, friend, teach your­self before you undertake to teach others. Behold yourself,' inwardly and outwardly, in the clear mirror of Christ and his holy word, that you may realize what an igno­rant teacher and unfit christian you are be­fore God:

Sixthly, you have also made of yourself a false prophet and teacher, a deceiver of men, an apparent hypocrite and ravening wolf in sheep's clothing. Do not take it amiss that I call you such, and tell the truth. For how can you teach a more false doctrine than to teach that God the Father, is not the true Father of the whole Christ; and that the whole Christ is not the true Son of God; to make the angel of God, John the Baptist and all the apostles of God, false witnesses; to make Christ, the eternal broth, a false teacher; for he says, that we shall not swear at all, Matt. b:34, and you say that we are allowed to swear to the truth; to make the baptism, which was commanded by Christ, and taught and practiced by his holy apostles, a false bap­tism; and to want to teach a different doc­trine and practice, of which not a word is found in all the Scriptures.

Dear Micron, if you would follow good counsel, you would at once quit your writ­ing. For make it as you will, it is certain that you by your strongest arguments and best points do nothing, in fact, but super­sede and teach the eternal wisdom, Christ Jesus, the Son of God, and his Holy Ghost, together with the apostles of Christ; noth­ing but change their words, doctrine, com­mandments, institutions, ordinances and practices, as if they in themselves were not essential and right, yea, powerless, vain, and useless, and thereby show that you are their teacher and master. Beloved Micron, take heed. The more you write the more manifest you make your own shame and false doctrine, and the greater you make the guilt of your deceit. My friend, let yourself be warned.

You console the poor, blind people with falsehood, deprive them of both Father and Son, 1 Jn. 2:22, lamentably adulterate the word of the Lord; from which it is very plain, that you forsake the Lord who has purchased us, 2 Pet. 2:1, that you are prompted by the Spirit of anti‑christ, 1 Jn. 4:3; that it is anathema, Gal. 1:8. You teach us a gospel which was not taught us by the apostles of Christ. It shows that you rob God of his honor, and are a mur­derer of souls, Jn. 10:1, which Christ Jesus has purchased at such a great price, 1 Pet. 1:8, a messenger of darkness who trans­forms himself into an angel of light, 2 Cor. 11:14.

Do not take it amiss, that I write the truth. I repeat, a ravening wolf in sheep's clothing, Matt. 7:16, who devours the souls of men by a false explanation of the Script­ure, under a fictitious semblance of truth, robs them of the truth, and thus offers and sacrifices them to the prince of hell, for the­sake of a woolen rag and a piece of bread. Not to mention that you cause so much trouble to many a chosen saint of God, de­prive him of possession, and even of life, by your false doctrine, because you falsely charge, slander, defame, and trample under foot the doctrine, which is the clear, pure, unadulterated, powerful, saving and re­generating doctrine of Christ, as being her­esy and deceit, and the faithful children which are thereby converted from unright­eousness unto righteousness, and from the dumb idols unto the living God, as being deceitful, sectarian people, before the erring, blind, and carnal world of blasphemers, blood‑preachers, messengers of the devil, blood‑thirsty tyrants and covetous robbers.

O, Micron, friend, how good it would be for your poor soul (if you do not sincerely repent) if you had never been born. What have you, miserable man, suffered your ambitious, proud, evil flesh to do, that you, for the sake of a little breeze of vain honor, which you can enjoy but a short time in this confused evil world, have committed such abominable blasphemy against the Almighty, eternal, and great God; have so lamentably defamed his holy apostles and faithful witnesses; so grossly profaned the Lord's word; so deadly deceived the peo­ple; so unmercifully caused trouble to the godly and pious, and that you have heaped such great guilt and sin upon your own, poor soul, by your writing. Surely your whole book is nothing but a plain declara­tion and manifestation of your own shame and anti‑christian doctrine, both for the present and future world, which discovers, proclaims, and publishes your abominably great. abuse and error unto all men who seek the Lord. Friend Micron, reflect, and see if I do not rightly point out your very dangerous wounds and deadly sores, ac­cording to the Scriptures.

Lastly, you have made yourself a shame and dishonor to all the rest of the preach­ers, who are your fellows in doctrine and service, in the sight of all the pious of the world. For, as you migrated from Flan­ders to England; from England to Fries­land, for the sake of the gospel, as is said; and as you do much writing and disputing, lead a reasonable, civil life before the world; are not particularly considered as an adul­terer, wine‑bibber or coxcomb; in short, as you are finely clothed in sheep's clothing, &c.; therefore you are probably looked upon and considered as an exemplary person, head, light, or at least, as one of the principal of them. And you are yet in truth found to be, before God and all intel­ligent persons, such an one as we have partly shown you to be in. this epistle, by your own writings, therefore we will let the reader consider in the fear of God, what we should think of the others who are not thus covered with sheep's clothing, but who grasp, eat, drink, and lead a pompous, os­tentatious, careless, easy and carnal life, who fear neither God nor devil, who sell the souls of men for a trifle, who gladly ac­cept liens and easy times, and still are in the same doctrine, vocation and service, with you. And what we should do in re­gard to attending the preaching of both you and them (on which account they would bite their own tongues for madness), I will let every one judge who cordially seeks God, according to the word of the Lord, Matt. 7:15; 16:13; 16:6; Jn. 10:1; Rom. 16:16; Gal. 6:8; 1 Tim. 6:3:2 Tim. 2:3; Tit. 3: fl; 2 Jn. 1:7; 2 Cor. 6:14; Rev. 18:4.

I am very much surprised that the other preachers, part of whom (though they do not want to be upon the narrow path with Christ and his chosen ones), are naturally intelligent, do not reprove you and stop your slanderous writing, as it is a shame to them as well as to yourself; for never was your anti‑christian foundation and doctrine concerning Christ, the Son of God, made so manifest, as it was by your bold assertions and blindness, and by my nec­essary reply thereto. All those that have eyes may see what fearful unbelief and abominable foundation and doctrine you have. Still, you will remain good teachers in the sight of the world; for it is such they seek and desire. John truly says, " They are of the world; therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them," 1 Jn. 4:6.