us that they are not the preachers to serve in such capacity. Although they have renounced, in different cities and countries, (for which we praise the Lord), some abuses and idolatries, which were so gross that they might be plainly noticed, without Scriptures, to be abominations; yet, the root of all deceit remains untouched, namely, the false; doctrine and unscriptural sacraments, with which they console the world and encourage them in their impenitence and natural state or Adamic heart which is the source of all unrighteousness, as may, alas, be seen on every hand by the fruits.
If, then, they are the true preachers as they pretend to be, let them execute the first part, namely, To break in pieces with the hammer of the divine word the proud, obdurate hearts, the impure, avaricious hearts, the blood-guilty, tyrannical hearts, &c., of whom it is written that they are worthy of death; to humble them by the eternal judgment and punishment of Almighty God; to discover to them their ungodly and corrupt nature and flesh, by virtue of the commands; that they may learn to know themselves, see their shame and thus, with sorrowing and repenting hearts, in the fear of the coming wrath and eternal punishment of the just and great God, sincerely and tremblingly repent and die unto their sins, crucify their flesh, smother their lusts, and walk before their God with broken and humbled hearts. Behold this is the true and principal rooting out, destroying and opposing to which Scriptures say, the true preachers are called.
Then let such moved and humbled hearts, such penitent and sighing sinners, who are, with Peter and Magdalene, heart broken, bitterly weep, and with David confess their guilt; then point them to the only and eternal seat of grace, Christ Jesus; teach them the eternal mercy, love, favor, and grace of God, according to the Scriptures; console them with the gospel of peace; carefully anoint their wounds, caused by the sharp and smarting wine, with the oil of the joyful promises of Christ, that they may thus, through faith arise with Christ from the death of their abominable sins into the new life of all virtue; that they may, in true faith and in pure, unfeigned love, ever walk without all offence, according to the example of Christ and all the pious; and give thanks to the Lord for his manifest love. Behold, thus sow and build, all true preachers who are called of the Spirit of the Lord and are fit for his service.
Dear reader, observe; Since Gellius and the preachers, then, are not such destroyers and builders, rooters, and planters, as their deeds testify; but destroy that which is good and build up that which is bad; that they root out truth with their offensive doctrine and plant falsehood with their false sacraments and easy life; therefore our assertion is incontrovertible, that they are not the servants of Christ nor his true messengers.
He writes, "that the Lord, through their service, has planted true repentance and such a true christian faith in many hearts, that the small congregation at Emden were comforted in expectation of a heavenly reward."
Answer. If this were true indeed, as he writes, it should be attested by the fruits and manifested by the works. Paul says, "The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power," 1 Cor. 4: 20. Let nobody falsely boast; we will be judged of one before whom nothing is hidden. Nobody knows what true, Christian faith and and true repentance are, but he who has truly received them and felt their power. If God, then, plants repentance in so many hearts, as Gellius pretends, why is he and his like preachers, yet so impenitent, so inimical and refractory to truth, and so offensive and blamable in wholesome doctrine? If those of whom he speaks are of the same mind with him, which we trust they are not, then he has not written the truth; this is too plain to be denied.
Those hearts in which God has planted true repentance and an ardent, true, Christian faith cannot, especially in these times of manifest truth, long be hidden, nor remain without the cross promised by the Holy Scriptures, if, even, their own preachers and relations are to persecute them. For if they would testify their faith by a frank confession, by a pious life and by works, which are the fruits of true and ardent faith, they would soon find that they have to bear the cross with Christ, their Lord. However much Gellius may garble it in his writings,
