Complete Theological Works

TO THE READER.

...has written, and has clearly and concisely demonstrated through God’s Word how one must distinguish between various sins. He shows that carnal sinners—of whom the Apostle says that those who do such things shall not inherit God’s Kingdom (1 Cor. 6, Gal. 5)—should not be instructed within the Congregation original: Gemeynte; the local body of believers. with three admonitions. Instead, following the example of the Referring to the man in 1 Corinthians 5 who was expelled from the church at Corinth for sexual immorality. Corinthian fornicator, they must be removed from the Congregation without any such admonitions. This is done so that such a carnal sinner may be punished outside His Congregation in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and be chastened in his flesh for his own improvement. Thus, through true repentance and sorrow for his sins, his spirit may be saved on the day of our Lord Jesus (1 Cor. 5:4).

As the well-disposed seeker may clearly see and read, this is demonstrated in his Foundation Book on the Christian Ban The "Ban" refers to the Anabaptist practice of excommunication and social shunning, intended to maintain the purity of the church and lead the sinner to repentance. or punishment, on pages 198, 199, and 200; and also in the Response against Syles and Lemmeken Zelis Philips and Janneken (or Lemke) were Anabaptist leaders who disagreed with Menno Simons over the strictness of the Ban, leading to a significant internal conflict., on pages 481 and 482. Furthermore, we have gathered all his other writings or books concerning godly teaching that we were able to find or obtain into this volume, so as to have a complete Summary original: Sommarium of his work together. We have kept these books entirely in their original form, placing them one after another. We have changed nothing in them, except for correcting a few printing errors, clarifying some obscure words according to the proper sense of our language, and adding certain references in the margin, and also