cumcision, as the spiritual prophets and apostles always knew, was a
circumcision of the heart, and not of the flesh, and so, too, the true
and availing baptism is a baptism into the life, death, and resurrection
of Christ, {111} and cleanses the soul of its sins and produces "a good
conscience toward God"--the old sinful man is buried and a new and
Christlike man is raised. The same transforming effects attach to the
real communion in which the finite human spirit feeds upon its true
divine food and drink--the Life of Christ given for us. The real Sabbath
is not a sacred day, kept in a ceremonial and legal sense, but rather an
inward quiet, a prevailing peace of soul, a rest in the life of God from
stress and strain and passion. The Church has been pitiably torn and
mutilated by disputes over the genuine form of administering these outer
ceremonies, supposing them to be in themselves sacraments of life. As
soon as they are recognized to be what they really are, only temporary
signs and symbols, then the main emphasis can be put where it properly
belongs, and where Christ himself always put it, on love and on the
practice of love. No ceremony, even though instituted by Christ himself
and practised with absolute correctness, can make a bad heart good, but
love--love which suffers long and is kind--flows only from a renewed and
transformed heart which already partakes of the same nature as that which
was incarnate in Christ. Imprisonment, isolation, exile, excommunication
may deprive one of the outward ceremonies, but neither death nor life,
nor any outward circumstance in the universe, need separate the soul from
the love of God in Christ, or deprive it of the privilege of loving![10]

Coornhert criticizes the great Reformers for having put far too weighty
emphasis on externals, and he especially criticizes Calvin for having
given undue prominence to "pure doctrine" and to the right use of
sacraments. It is impossible, he insists, to establish authoritatively
from Scripture this so-called "pure doctrine." In fact, many parts of
Scripture are against the doctrine of predestination, and Scripture is
always against the doctrine of perseverance in sin. All speculations
about the Trinity, or about the dual nature of Christ, transcend our
knowledge and should be rejected. Furthermore {112} there is no
authoritative Scripture or revelation for the new forms of the sacrament
that have been introduced by the Reformers and