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Christ, but must remain without, till they sincerely repent and are converted to Christ, walk in the ways of the Lord, and be of one spirit and one faith with Christ and his church. For the Lord's supper is a communion of the flesh and blood of Christ, which is not to be given to the ungodly and obdurate as a pledge of reconciliation, but to the sincere, penitent, christian believers.

If any one has a good appearance before men, and is inwardly proud, avaricious, sensual and without the spirit of God, he is not judged of the church, but of the Lord himself, the searcher and trier of men's hearts, and reins, as the scripture says. (Ps. 7; Jer. 17; Rom. 8; Rev. 2.) We do, therefore, admonish all those who would go to the Lord's table; to examine themselves, before they approach; for all who eat unworthily of this bread, and drink of this wine, eat and drink damnation to themselves. (1 Cor. 11.)

Thus, beloved, does the holy supper instruct and admonish us: first; the bread, as the body of Christ, which he offered for us, and the cup, the blood of Christ which he shed in great love, for the remission of our sins. (Matt. 26; Mark 14; Luke 22.) In the second place, we are admonished to union, love and peace, which must be among all true christians, according to the spirit, doctrine and example of Christ; for Paul says: For we being may are one bread; and one body, &c. (1 Cor. 10.) In the third place, we are admonished to true regeneration, to all righteousness, thanksgiving, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, to a pious and unblamable life. For it is a communion of the blood and body of Christ, of which no one is a partaker, nor can be, unless, he is born of God, dead unto sin, an humble, peaceable, pious christian, one who is in Christ, and Christ in him; flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone: This is to be a true partaker of the body and blood of Christ; as Paul says: For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. (John 3; Eph. 5; Heb. 3.)

Behlod, beloved readers, here you have the true instractions concerning the Lord's holy supper, with its significa tions, fruit, power, nature, and the guests, as the mouth of the Lord and the holy apostles have left it and taught us. The usages and ordinances which belong to the church of God, are to be observerved and kept with knowledge, faith, love, union, peace and piety.

Here compare the supper of the world with this, and you will know the true one; what an abomination the Antichrist has made of it, and what enchantments he practised by it, and how we poor sinners, with all our forefathers, have offered incense, as idolatrous Israel of old, for hundreds of years, unto the brazen serpent, (2 Kings 8; Exod. 32) and danced before the golden calf. (2 Chron. 12.) O! my faithful reader, fear God, with all your heart, examine the scriptures, and believe the truth...

OF THE CORRUPTION OF THE HOLY SUPPER.

The scriptures teach that we have no other offering for sin than the body of the Lord, (Isa. 53; Matt. 20, 26; Rom. 3; Heb. 9, 10) as before said. But because the enemies of Christ, have possessed the cathedral for so many years, and according to scripture, have altered the laws of the Most High, and have instead thereof, erected their abomination of desolation, (Deut. 7) and have altered and corrupted the holy supper with their councils, power and false doctrine, till, alas! it retains but the shadow, and the mere name, and they did this to destroy and corrupt, the true, eternal offering of Christ, which only avails with God, and changed it into a daily offering for sin, as we may plainly read in the canons of the mass; which undoubtedly is an abomination of abominations; for thereby, Jesus Christ with his all-sufficient, eternal offering, is abolished and made of none effect though he is the propitiation and mediation of the New Testament. He is thrust from his throne of majesty; his merits, cross, blood, and death rejected; yea, all the types and shadows of Moses, all predictions of the prophets; the promise of angels, and the whole New Testament, are thereby denied, for they all harmoniously point to the one and eternal offering of Christ; but in apposition to, and instead of it, they ordained an unholy, blind, seductive and sensual idolatry, with a piece of bread !

G

Beloved reader, here put no other construction upon these words; what I write is the truth.

It has come so far with this ungodly seducing corruption, that they have arrogated to themselves all power in heaven above, upon earth, and in hell below; they therefore break the bread into three pieces. With the first, they reconcile God; with the second, they intercede for the world; and with the third, as they pretend, they pray for the souls in purga

tory.

Through this accursed infamy they rose so high in honor, that they are above all the potentates of earth, (Acts 17) whom they made their own servants. By their hypocritical service and enchanting idolatry, they hold in possession, money, goods, gold, silver, land, rents, cloisters, cities, principalities and the dominions of this world, because every one loved this splendid service as holy and divine, honored and feared their exalted and pompous names as the messengers of God!!

By this ingenious and subtle magic, the Roman Antichrist has gained such respect and authority, that even the imperial majesty, the highest soverignty on earth, whom we are com-. manded of God to respect and obey, had to humble himself and kiss his feet; yea, what is still worse, Frederick Barba rossa, a prudent man, an emperor of renown, could not be reconciled with Pope Alexander III. until he humbled himself at Venice, before the church, and suffered the Pope to tread upon him with his feet! (a)

Behold, thus Antichrist has enchanted the whole world with his offering. The gracious Father be eternally praised, that he has, through his paternal grace delivered us, his poor children, from this enchanting offering, and given us to know the only and eternal offering of his son, Jesus Christ, who according to the order of Melchisedek, is ordained an eternal high priest over, the house of God; who, in the days of kis flesh, offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears, unto him that was able to save from death, and was heard, because he honored God. (Heb. 5, 7, 9, 10.) This one, I say, offered an acceptable offering, a sweet smelling sacrifice, of eternal worth, whereby he appeases the Father's wrath, reconciles the human race, opened heaven, and closed hell; and made peace between heaven and earth; and sits

(a) Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, is tran pled upo 1 by the Pope.

how, and henceforth, at the right hand of his Father, till his enemies be made his foot stool, (Col, 1; Ps. 109) yea, with this one offering, he has perfected forever all those who are sanctified. This cannot be gainsayed, whether by emperor or king, doctor or teacher, angel or devil. This word stands firmly and is immoveable. He has with one offering, I say with one offering, perfected for ever those who are sanctified. (Heb. 10.a)

O, my beloved reader! I mean all those who are without the spirit of Christ and his word, take heed what the word of the Lord teaches you, and observe the true doctrine of Christ, the true sacraments, the true teachers, the true church and the true christian life, so that you may once learn to know what kind of pastors feed you; what kind of baptism and supper you practice; by what kind of offering you are reconciled; what kind of lives you lead, and of whose body you are members.

O how long, says Solomon, will you simple ones love simplicity? And you scorners delight in scorning? How long will you remain prisoners of sin? How long will you remain in the communion of the devil, and suffer yourselves to be dragged down to the abyss of hell by the cords of unbelief? Awake, and ransom your poor souls! Come out from among them! Avoid every appearance of evil; (Isa. 52; 2 Cor. 6; Rev. 18; 1 Thess. 5) believe in Christ Jesus; repent and lead An unblameable life; follow Christ with a sincere heart; enter into the house and covenant of his everlasting peace, into the communion of his flesh and blood. Take upon you his easy yoke and you will find rest for your souls, (Matt. 11) and you may then of a truth say, that you are christians; that you have obtained the remission of your sins, by the grace of God, through the merits of Christ; and that you are joint heirs of the eternal kingdom. May God grant his grace to you all, Amen.

In the second place, they made the bread, in the holy supper, into the real flesh, and the wine into the real blood of Christ, (b) and understood the words of Christ literally:

(a) The body and blood of Christ once offered for our sins, and there is no other offering. (b) Transubstantiation was declared under Pope Victor and Hilbrand, alias Gregory XII. in a council held at Turo, A. D. 1055, against Berengarius. [Berengarius asserted that the bread and wine in the Lord's supper are not really and essentially, but figuratively changed into body and blood of Christ.-Translator

Take, eat, this is my body, &c., and did not observe that Christ, (John 6) does fully instruct us, how we are to eat his flesh and drink his blood, and says, that it would profit nothing really to eat his flesh, and to drink his blood, for this could not be done, because he was about ascending to heaven where he was before; we are therefore not literally to understand this eating of his flesh, and drinking of his blood; but spiritually, as he himself says: The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. All those who thus understand this from the scriptures, are called and accursed as heretics and profaners of the sacrament, and suffer for it by water, fire and the sword. (a)

O dear Lord! is this not an ungodly error, and great blindness, to teach, and to believe; that a piece of bread, and a drink of wine should be changed into the real and essential flesh and blood of the son of God, whereby we may be deliv ered from hell, the devil, sin and death, and are made children of grace? O, horrible heresy !

O you poor, miserable, blind people, believe the words of Christ, when he says: It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life; believe that he ascended up to heaven and is at the right hand of his Father, (Mark 16; Luke 24; Rom. 8) therefore he cannot be eaten nor confined in the body by any one, nor is he to be placed upon any altar, nor can he be consumed by fire or worms, as it is evidently the case with the visible bread and wine. (Col. 2.)

But where the Lord's church, the beloved disciples of Christ, who have met in his name, celebrate the holy supper in true faith, love and obedience, there the outward, perishable man eats, perishable bread and wine; and the inner, the imperishable man of the heart, spiritually eats the imperishable flesh and blood of Christ, which can neither be eaten nor destroyed, as above said; like is profited by like; this is incontrovertible. The visible man is nourished upon visible food, and the invisible man is fed upon invisible bread, as we may plainly. learn from the mouth of the Lord. (John 6.b)

Therefore, all who are in Christ and with believing, penitent hearts, know and rely upon the pure offering of the body

(a) Those who teach the true doctrine of the Lord's supper, are called profaner's of the sacrament and heretics. (b) Like must be renewed of like.