The true words extracted from the Copy of the Resolution of Doctor Galenus Abrahamsz and his followers. Read aloud on February 21, and delivered in writing on the 28th of the same month, in which the opinion of Galenus and his followers is shown.

A decorative drop cap 'A' featuring intricate floral scrollwork designs.

They, the friends, feel and maintain that the outward, visible congregation is so entirely fallen that it has ceased to exist in all its offices, services, and organization, and cannot be set up, restored, or governed solely by the inherited writings of the New Testament.

That the Shepherds and Teachers, as they presently exist and remain, do not serve the purpose of building up, but rather of destruction; not for the unity of knowledge, but for ignorance of the Son of God, etc.

That there is no need to refer to the election and confirmation of church offices and services, but that it is free to let these lapse.

That all the Brethren have the freedom both to Teach and to Baptize.

That no one, even if unbaptized, provided they were pious in life, should be barred from the Brotherhood and the Holy Supper.

That no one should be baptized based on the doctrine or confession of faith of this or that teacher or congregation, or upon any ecclesiastical decision of many teachers and congregations together; rather, one should be satisfied if the person being baptized accepts the Scripture as their foundation and rule of Faith, without requiring them to declare whether they understand the Scripture as the contents of the Confessions of that congregation where they wish to be baptized.

That the Holy Supper, or the practice of blessing and breaking the Bread and handling the Cup, is not so much a Church ceremony as it is a household ceremony.

That ecclesiastical discipline or punishment is idle and powerless during this decay of gifts.

That the Jews could be saved through the Law of moral conduct, and the Heathens through the Law of Nature.

That the question will not be what one believes, but what one has done.

That Moses, the Prophets, and the Lord Christ came only for this purpose: to bring about a good disposition in man. And that the Scripture, from Genesis to the Apocalypse, served no other purpose than to exhort man in moral conduct. And whoever uses it for the establishment of any opinion or conception derived from it, distorts it.

That Christ did not come (or die) for the righteous, from Abel to Nathanael.

That we have not been truly bought or redeemed by the Blood of Christ, but that the passages speaking of buying, ransoming, and paying are metaphorical and figurative ways of speaking.

Further feeling and maintaining that our Savior, through his bitter suffering and death, only intervened between God and men, just as Abraham did for Abimelech and Job for his friends. This was only because God willed it, and not because His justice demanded satisfaction. Upon which humble submission, His Father granted Him the human race as a prize, so that Christ did not suffer for us—that is, in our place and stead—as the Scripture says, but only for our good, for our benefit, for our advantage; indeed, in such a way that if Christ, being innocent, had suffered for the guilty, this could not exist in accordance with the justice of God.

And that man can indeed reach such a level of purification, which must happen on his own part, that he has no more to be purified. Indeed, if God had given us a Law that we could not fulfill, He would be more unreasonable than an enlightened Father or a rational Magistrate. Saying that those who taught that one never reaches the point in the purification brought about by our own side where one has no more to be purified, but that Christ is our sole absolute purification: that this is a seductive doctrine that made Christ a servant of sin, laid pillows under the heads and arms of man for their sins, and urged them to lean on an Egyptian reed staff, which they would see break on the last day.

M E M O R Y.

Regarding the sermon of Jacob Ostens, delivered in the Waterland Church on March 23 of this year 1664, Sunday before noon; his text was Titus 2: verse 14.

The aforementioned Ostens used a parable of the slaves of the Turks, that they were redeemed in two ways. Firstly, by money. Secondly, by power, just as they were made slaves by Power. And that this significance also had a place in Scripture, especially in the Old Testament, where God the Lord says that His people were bought for nothing, that they should be redeemed again for nothing, and he brought forth Acts 7, and that we too were redeemed by Christ. But just as money is not worthy—even if it were all the money in the world, it cannot be valued against the life of a human—the slaves are not redeemed from the Turk according to value. And the aforementioned Ostens applied this to Christ, that He had indeed redeemed us, but had not truly made satisfaction. Indeed, He did not make satisfaction for any man, for otherwise Christ would have had to suffer eternally, while an eternal punishment was threatened; but that the word used in Scripture of buying, ransoming, and redeeming is metaphorical and figurative.