ANOTHER CONFESSION WHICH REYTSE AYSESS MADE BEFORE THE BISHOP, ON THE 5TH OF JANUARY, A. D. 1574.
The love of God, the communion of the Holy Ghost, and the love of the Father, who gave his only Son for us all, keep, strengthen and confirm you and us all unto the end, that we may hereafter come to the Shepherd Jesus Christ. My affectionate request of you, my cordially beloved friends, is, that you make haste to enter into his rest. Heb. 4:11.
After all proper salutation, let me inform your love, that on the fifth day of this year, 1574, I was before the bishop, who said: “Good-day, and a Blessed New Year. Will you not yet give yourself to the holy Catholic faith, in which all your forefathers believed, and in which we still believe?” _Ans._ “A blessed New Year I indeed desire from the heart; but in your faith I do not wish to believe, but I want to believe in the holy Scriptures.” The bishop said, I had built upon men, and upon the doctrines of men. _Reytse._ “I have not built upon men; I have built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, yea, upon the rock; therefore my house shall stand. Behold, these are now the tempests that assail my house; had it such a foundation, it would fall; but now it is founded upon the rock.” _Bishop._ “What is the reason that you went out from us, for you have confessed that you have never heard our doctrine?” _Reytse._ “Hear me; I shall tell you: When I was a child, I went there as others; but my parents kept me from the sinners’ path, for which I am very thankful to them. But when I attained to my understanding, I read in the holy Scriptures that the way to the kingdom of God is narrow and strait, and that flesh and blood must remain on [the posts]; that we must be well fitted; that there must be a pure church; that the stones must be hewn and squared, before they may be put into the house of God, of which Christ Jesus is the corner stone; and that there are to be no whores, rogues, drunkards, covetous, or idolaters in the church of God. But I found that your church of which you are the head or ruler is such a church; and I am concerned for you, because you are a meek man; hence I pray you, that for once you will search the holy Scriptures; for it seems to me that you know better than you speak; you have a soul to lose as well as I.” He said that as regards drunkenness, fornication and other sins that were in their church, they had ordained that one should pray for it, and the priests would forgive the sins. I said: “The priests cannot forgive sin, but to pray God to forgive sin, is very good: but a man must pray from the heart, that he may never during all the days of his life sin any more. But I must ask you once, whether you think, that if a man sins to-day or to-morrow, and asks the Lord for forgiveness, and does so every day, the Lord will forgive him?” He said, this could be. I said it could not.
Finally the bishop made a long speech, that I would not obey my superior, and had thus apostatized from their holy faith, and joined the Mennists and Tibbites. I said I had never been disobedient, and had never opposed the king, and did not want to bear the sword against any one, as Christ teaches. Then the bishop said he would take the clearest of that which I could say nothing against, and that I should suppose myself to be ignorant, and he would suppose that he was ignorant, and so the Scriptures should judge between us. I told him to say on; if it would agree with the Scriptures, I would hear him. He said the Lord spoke very clearly in the Gospel, where he says: Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you; likewise the cup; hence we must eat his flesh, and drink his blood, as he said; this you cannot contradict. I said I well knew that it is written that the Lord said: Take, eat; this is my body; but I know that the Lord is in high heaven and does not come under men’s teeth for your own people do not believe that you give them flesh and blood. He said they had to believe it. I said that the Lord spoke thus: “Take, eat; this is my body which shall be broken for you. This is what the Lord said, but the disciples asked: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? But the Lord said that flesh and blood profit nothing, but the words are spirit and life (John 6). Hence it is clear enough, that we are not to eat and drink Christ’s flesh and blood, as he said, but that we are thereby to remember his death and sufferings; for the Lord gave his body for the whole world, and for the original sin in which we were born. If the Lord had not redeemed us from the sin imposed upon us by Adam, we could not have been saved; but now the Lord has redeemed us with his flesh and blood, and made us free from all sin, and shed his blood for many; hence we cannot eat his flesh, because he made us free with it.” Gal. 5:1.