Menno Simons · 6 of 109

OF THE MISSION OR CALLING OF THE PREACHERS. · Part 4

Notwithstanding they call the godly, pious hearts and peaceable children of God, who are zealous for God and his righteous­ness, as much as is in their power, and who do not countenance quarreling, a conten­tious sect and ungodly, deceiving conspira­tors, while they, on the contrary, are peace­able, teachers of one mind; besides they call the impenitent, wicked world the church and people of the Lord.

Behold, so manifestly the Lord "will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent", 1 Cor. 1:18, yea, that to them Christ Jesus is Belial, and Belial Christ Jesus; light, darkness and darkness, light, 2 Cor. 8; that they, alas consider the doctrine, life, power, confession, and the sacrifice of possession and life of the chosen as noth­ing; but that they judge every thing per­versely, unfavorably and with partiality, according to the flesh, and thus construe every thing to offensiveness; that they seek all kinds of excuses to offend the pious, to blaspheme truth and to uphold unrighteous­ness, that nobody be converted, repent and sincerely seek and follow the word of the Lord. O, Lord! grant that this may be made manifest unto them.

He further writes: "Nor is it a desirable fruit, but a shameful disgrace that they, contrary to the example of Christ, and the apostles constitute themselves a church, desecrate the Lord's Sabbath, leave the open assembly and service, hate and upbraid the servants, and not only not examine the solicitous labors and prophecies of the servants but also boldly despise them, contrary to the command of the Holy Ghost and the doctrine of the command of the Sabbath."

Answer. Observe, reader, how adroitly they can adorn lies, and how frightfully they can suppress and despise truth under cover of virtue. All the evangelical Script­ures teach us that the church of Christ was and is, in doctrine, life and worship, a peo­ple separated from the world. It also was in the times of the Old Testament, 2 Cor. 8:17; 1 Peter 2:9, 10; Exod. 19:12.

Since the church always was and shall be a separate people, as has been heard, and since it is as clear as the meridi­an sun, that for centuries no difference has been made between the church and the world, but that they have been indiscrim­inately blended together in baptism, Supper, life and worship, which is so plainly con­trary to all Scripture, therefore we feel ourselves constrained by the Spirit and word of God, and not of our own account, to gather together, to the praise of Jesus Christ and to the salvation of our neigh­bors, and not unto us, but unto the Lord a pious and penitent church or com­munity from all untrue and deceiving sects of the whole world, not contrary to the doc­trine and example of Christ Jesus and the apostles, as Gellius falsely accuses us, but according to the Spirit, doctrine and exam­ple of Jesus Christ, manifested unto us; yea, gather them patiently under the cross of misery, in spite of all the violence and gates of hell, and not by force of arms and persecution as is the custom of the world, but separate them from it, as the Scriptures teach, that they may be an admonition, example and reproach to the impenitent world as has already been heard.

They keep and sanctify the Sabbath which is not the literal, but the spiritual Sabbath, which never ends with true chris­tians, not by wearing fine clothes, not by carousing, vanity and idleness, as the reck­less world do, but by the true fear of God, by a clear conscience and unblamable life, in love to God and their neighbors; for that is the true religion, Heb. 12:1, and in the fear of their God they do not attend the public Sabbath and holiday gatherings which are, alas, not consecrated to Christ, but to anti‑christ in all manner of vanity and hypocrisy, in pomp and splendor; nor do they take part in their idle church‑service which tends to nothing but deceiving that they may thereby attend the gathering of the saints and the true service, convince the erring, and thus make manifest, truth and the true doctrine, to the reformation and salvation of all mankind.

They do not hate and envy the open deceivers and false preachers who so miser­ably deceive the poor people, as Gellius accuses us, but earnestly reprove them in love according to God's Spirit and word, that they may repent and be converted, as the Scriptures teach us.

In short, they do not despise the solicit­ous labors and the prophecies of the true and faithful servants of Christ, nor the precious gifts of the Holy Spirit, against the commands of the Holy Spirit and the doctrine of the command of the Sabbath, as he very wrongly complains we do, but they shun, at the risk of possessions and life, according to the advice, doctrine and admonition of the Holy Spirit, and the doc­trine of the Sabbath, the false labors, and the powerless, impenitent and hired proph­ecies of the anti‑christian servants, who do not serve Christ and the church, as they boast; but serve their bellies and the world; and they dare not hear and follow them because their doctrine and fruits show that they are those whom the Scriptures and divine truth forbid us to follow.

Their priests, says the Lord, "teach for hire, and the prophets divine for money." They rely upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord amongst us? No evil can betide us; therefore "Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps," Mic. 3:12; Jer. 26:18. It is also manifest that Gellius and his like preachers have done the same thing of which he accuses us, for they, long before we did, have separated themselves from the papists into a separate church, as is known to all mankind to be incontrovertible. But we are sorry to say that our separation from them was caused by themselves. For if we would have found them to be right we would have remained with them; but as it is, we have, alas, to leave them at the cost of life and posses­sions, as may be seen.

Behold, my kind reader, here you have before you, my brief reply to the main arti­cles concerning the calling of preachers, which Gellius so respectfully brought for­ward to the defense of his cause and to the detriment of ours.

I have no doubt but that you, by the grace of God, will find a clear difference, explanation and foundation, if you compare his writing with ours and judge according to the word of the Lord by the manifest fruits on both sides; and this is the sum­mary of my writings, that nobody can be a truly called preacher and God‑pleasing servant in the Lord's house and church, without having the Holy Spirit which work­eth in all true christians; without regenera­tion which transforms the heart from earthly to heavenly things, through faith; nor with­out unfeigned love, which seeks nothing but the praise of God and the salvation of his neighbor, nor without the salutary, precious word which cuts and cleaves with­out respect of person; nor without the pious, unblamable life which is of God.