# Another Confession Which Reytse Aysess Made Before The Bishop, On The 5th Of January, A. D. 1574.

1574 · Historical source

Source: Martyrs’ Mirror. Original heading: ANOTHER CONFESSION WHICH REYTSE AYSESS MADE BEFORE THE BISHOP, ON THE 5TH OF JANUARY, A. D. 1574.

Source heading; not independently verified

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
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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.

The bishop said that Christ did not say of his own
flesh that it profiteth nothing, but of other flesh;
hence, since the Lord so clearly says it, we must eat
his flesh, and drink his blood, if we are to be saved;
for he said that Paul says: Is this not the cup of
blessing? Hence you cannot contradict what Christ
and Paul have so clearly expressed. Reytse. “My
lord, I well know what Christ and Paul said, for the
apostles brake bread from house to house, as we
clearly read, in proof of it, and as Christ has left us.”
But he kept insisting that we had to eat the Lord’s
flesh, if we are to be saved.

The bishop further made a long speech concerning
the resurrection of the dead, how we shall die,
and rise again with this flesh, and many other remarks
which he made about the resurrection. I
finally said that I indeed believed that there is a
resurrection of the dead, for if there were no resurrection
of the dead, Christ would profit us nothing
and I would in that case not suffer thus; but that
this was a useless disputation. Then he dropped the
matter, and made a long speech, how it was written
of one Lord, one faith and baptism; hence I
had transgressed this, having suffered myself to be
rebaptized, when I had been baptized once, and
that I had transgressed the holy Scriptures, and
been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost, which is contrary to
the ordinance of the holy Church. Reytse. “I have
not been rebaptized, having been baptized once;
for I well know that there is written of one Lord
and one faith; hence I betook myself to one baptism
as the Lord teaches in many places, that the believing
are to be baptized: I therefore betook myself to
the baptism of repentance, as is proper according to
the Scriptures, and according to my human weakness.
But what you say, that I have been rebaptized,
this I deny; for I do not recognize the
baptism of infants as a baptism, but as a human institution,
as is obvious enough, since there is no
Scripture that children ought to be baptized.”

The bishop said that we must be born of water
and of the Spirit, if we are to be saved; hence children
must be baptized, if they are to be saved.
Reytse. “No; this is no Scripture, that children
ought to be baptized; for the Lord called the children
to him, that they should not be turned away,
for theirs is the kingdom of God; hence they are already
saved.” He said that they were believing
[believers?] children, that were circumcised, and he
made a long speech about the circumcision of Abraham,
that the children had to be circumcised, or
they were damned; and as then was circumcision,
so now baptism has been ordained by the holy fathers,
as is now the case. Reytse. “To this I say
no; it is not so, that the children that were not circumcised
were damned; for it was a command of
God, that they should be circumcised. They were
to be circumcised because they were Abraham’s
seed; the Lord had so commanded it, because they
should be his people, and not for the reason that
they that were not circumcised should be damned.
For they were circumcised on the eighth day, and
many must have died before they reached the age
at which they received the sign of circumcision;
hence great injustice would certainly have been
done the poor children, and in such a case all the
female children would certainly have been damned,
who are heirs of the kingdom of God as well as
we.” To this he said the children had nevertheless
to be baptized, if they were to be saved. Reytse.
“No; I further say, that the children are in the
hands of God, so long as they are ignorant, and
baptism does not belong to them; but to those that
have repented; for John preached repentance and
amendment, and only those [the penitent] to be
baptized, for the remission of sins, as he also says:
O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to
flee from the wrath to come? Repent, therefore,
and save yourselves from this untoward generation.”
Luke 3:7,8; Acts 2:40.

The bishop said that I could not prove it with
John’s baptism. I said that Christ himself came to
John, and requested it of John. John refused it to
the Lord. The Lord said: “Suffer it to be so now,
for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness;”
and John suffered him. Why do you say that I can
not prove it with John’s baptism? for Christ himself
requested it. The bishop made but little reply to
it. I said: I will show you still more Scriptures,
that it belongs to believers, as the eunuch to whom
Philip came. Philip said: “Understandest thou
what thou readest?” He said: “How should I understand
it, except some one instruct me?” Philip
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preached unto him from the beginning, and he believed
it. He said: “Here is water; what doth hinder
me to be baptized?” Philip said: “If thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest.” The
eunuch replied: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of the living God.” Then he baptized him.
(Acts 8:37) Here we see that faith was before baptism
nor was he a child. Further, in like manner also
Paul was baptized, when he had become a believer.
Pray, read the Acts of the Apostles through. The
bishop said, they also did want to baptize such
adults that had not been baptized in their infancy,
as the heathen or Tibbites, who were not baptized
in their infancy; hence they would also baptize
adults, for he said that it was written: “He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved.” Though
faith is mentioned before baptism, it is all the same;
hence children must be baptized: for there are many
that do not become so old that they attain their
reason; hence they certainly die without baptism and
are as certainly damned. Children must therefore
be baptized, that they may all be saved. I said, that
the children are in the hands of God, and baptism
does not pertain to them, for there is no
Scripture which declares that it does. Had it
been the will of the Lord, he would have commanded
it; but now he has commanded that
the believers are to be baptized, as he taught,
and as his apostles practiced. Hence prove to
me with the Scriptures, that it is commanded to
baptize poor innocent infants, which have done no
sin; for though I had never so many children, I
would not have them receive your baptism. He
said, though it was not commanded to baptize children,
neither was it forbidden to baptize them; hence
there is no Scripture prohibiting it. I said: “All that
the Lord has not commanded he has forbidden.
Hence, if he has commanded to baptize the believing,
men ought not to do differently from what the
Lord himself has commanded, for we everywhere
read of a baptism of repentance, and not of a baptism
of infants, as you teach and do. Why do you
do that which ought not to be? For it seems to me
that you know better; tell the truth.” But he made
me no reply to it; except that I was seduced; if I
adhered to this faith I would be damned; hence I
should betake myself to the holy Catholic faith.
And we had many other words, but it grew late,
and he went out, and said to the castellan, that
there was no hope for me, and that I would not suffer
myself to be instructed; and told me to consider
the matter further. I said that I wanted to do that;
but in this respect I have already considered; but do
you consider it, I pray you.





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Page: http://history.truechristian.church/stories/mm-another-confession-which-reytse-aysess-made-before-the-bishop-on-the-5th-of-january-a-d-1574/

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