In the article Anabai'TISts we have already alluded to the general mistake of Supposing that all Anabaptists were engaged in the Minister excesses, and that usually persons fail to make a distinction between the sober Christians and the worst fanatics of the party. In our sketch of the life and labors of David Joris {<\. v.), we had occasion to point out the earnestness which charac- terized liis followers of the "Anabaptists;" but it is in this place that we would enlist our reader's attention to the injustice of suffering a whole sect to be despised and forsaken because of the faults of a few who may have secured membership in order to make their rcUg- ious garb a stepping-stone to abused power. The two large Protestant bodies of Lutheran and Reformed liave always been characterized by jealousy towards any new sects, and have quickly charged their weaker rivals with all the infirmities which flesli is heir to, if any one mem- ber of the new comers was open to criticism. Even in our very day the Methodists and Baptists suffer more or less persecution from the communicants of the State churches in (iermany; how much more likely in tliosc days of the IGth century, wlien first the iron hold of the papacy, which had cramped the Church for ages, was suddenly relaxing. From all the sources now at our command, we gather the fact that Menno w.is a gentle, earnest, modest man. of a spiritual nature, with no trace about him of wild fanaticism; ready to encourage all that was nol)le. pure, and g()o<l in his fellow-men, con- stantly reproving those of his followers who apjjcared guilty of misdenieanors of any sort. Flourishing in the lieformatiou period, he was frecpicntly involved in con- troversies ; thus in 15-13 he was visited by the celebrated
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John a Lasko, who was determined to draw Menno into the party of the Keformed or Lutherans. For three or four days the two eminent divines held public disputa- tions upon Christ's humanit_y, infant baptism, etc., etc., but so gentle was Menno in his manner that at the close of the controversy the two combatants parted in peace, promising good-will towards each other. In 1550 he published a special tract to defend the doctrine of the Trinity against the Unitarians, who were coming to his country from Italy and Switzerland; in 1552, .1 thorough Confession on Disputed Points, for the use of other relig- ious bodies than his own.
Result ofMenno's Labors. — The whole system of the- ology as taught by Simon Menno presents few, if any, new developments. In his controversies with John a Lasko and Micronius, he confessed a peculiar Christolo- gy. He did not believe in a Son sundered and divided into two persons ("zers<McA,Wi oder zertheill"} of a human and divine nature. He confessed one and the same Son and Only-begotten, who in his very flesh is the God- Logos, who in his flesh came down from heaven, and in very flesh became man. He believed that Christ, in this Avay, was born in Mary, but not of^lnry; that he be- came flesh, and was made man, without taking upon him Mary's flesh and blood. Anxious to ascribe to our Lord the highest purity possible, he seems to have in- dulged in speculations which rendered the reality of Christ's human nature somewhat doubtful. He probably borrowed this vague notion from the Munster Anabap- tists. As a writer of systematic theology, Simon Menno was inferior to most of his contemporaries, and his main work. Das Fundamenthuch (1539), shows his want of adapteduess to a systematic treatment of religious doc- trines. Following the example of the apostles, he taught his followers, as the occasion required, in a simple, child- like way, and never allowed himself to be drawn into abstruse, or even abstract questions, when preaching to them. A complete and systematic statement of his doc- trines was never given by Simon Jlenno, and the great influence which he and his followers exercised on the internal and external history of the Reformation was due to the principle they represented.
Like the other Protestant Reformers, Menno accept- ed the formed and material principles of the Reforma- tion ; but, besides these, he aimed at a moral, practical end. It was his earnest desire to restore the king- dom of God, or the Christian Church, to that purity which is taught in the New Testament, and which he believed had existed in the Apostolic Church. To bring back this golden age of Christianity, and to organize a congregation ju)/ txovaav aTfi\ov,i] pvTica,i) n t^v toi- ovTojv (Ephes.v, 27), was the constant aim of all his ef- forts. This accounts fur the singular asceticism of the sect, and explains why the Mennonites did not, like other evangelical-^bodies, concern themselves about abstract religious speculations, but about moral laws and duties. For the same reasons they also separated themselves from the unbelieving world, and tried to purif)- the Church by administering the ordinance of baptism only to those who had made a personal profession of faith in Christ. The validity of infant baptism was rejected, while only adults " who do actually profess repentance towards God and obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ" were considered proper subjects of this ordinance. We quote here article seven of a Mennonite Confession of Faith: "We confess of baptism that all repenting be- lievers, who by faith, regeneration, and renewal of heart by the Holy Spirit, have been united with God, and whose names are written down in heaven, are to be bap- tized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem their faith in the crucilied, buried, and risen Redeemer, with its effect to live up to whatsoever things Christ taught his followers." The necessity of the power of excommunication in the Church was earnestly as- serted by Menno, '-for without the right usage of ex- communication the spiritual kingdom of God on earth