Hence, my dear lamb, I will commend you to the Lord, our God and helper in distress, and further to his holy church; may they together open their fatherly heart over you, my poor widow and young orphans. I further desire, my dear wife, that wherever it is convenient you greet the godfearing brethren and sisters much in my name with the peace of the Lord; and tell them, that I greatly desire of them all, that they remember us poor prisoners as their fellow-brethren, and will help pray and supplicate to God, that we may wage the Lord’s war, and [that he may] also help us to gain the victory, so that we may finish it to his praise and to our salvation; and bid them all adieu in our name, if perhaps I can write no more. And to you, my dear wife, my flesh and my blood, I will also say adieu; adieu, my helper in distress; adieu, my faithful friend on earth. The Lord be praised, that gave you to me; you, my lamb, who have always comforted me in my tribulation. Adieu, my Susanneken, my Abrahamken, my Isaaken; adieu, Janneken, my dearest love upon earth, who have borne me six children, with three of whom I hope soon to be at rest.
The almighty God, to whom nothing is impossible, but whose power is equal to everything, keep you, my chosen wife, with the other three innocent lambs, unto his eternal life. O my lamb, my Janneken Verstralen, may the almighty God grant us, my love, that we may with our children come to the Lord, to rejoice together before the throne of the Lamb and the Majesty of our God. Amen.
May God keep you, my dear wife, in the simplicity of doves, the innocence of children, and the prudence of serpents, and bring you to his eternal inheritance. I commend you to the Lord, and to the rich word of his grace. By me, your husband, Hendrick Verstralen, bound for the eternal truth, at Rijpermonde, with fetters on my legs.
Maeyken greets you and all the godfearing much with the peace of the Lord. O greet the household at D. much in our name; I very affectionately desire to ask the old mother and her daughters, that they immediately gird up their loins with the girdle of truth, and put on the shoes of the Gospel, to enter into the camp of God, to the church, where now the Lord’s war is waged. Come immediately, my dear old mother, with your young daughters, to bear the baggage of the Captain of our faith, namely, the knapsack of love, in which is the helmet of salvation, with a beautiful plume called faith and firm trust. Cover them with the mantle of righteousness, so that the beautiful helmet of salvation may not rust, and the plume not become soiled, that is, that your faith and trust towards God may not fail, and you remain behind with the faint-hearted and fearful. Though you see that all the tempests, storms and heavy rains fall upon the righteous, remember, my dear lamb, that all the godfearing must have themselves enlisted, and become soldiers under the bloody banner which Christ Jesus our chief Captain has borne in the midst of his saints, and under whose banner I now stand by the grace of God, and hope to fight valiantly together with him, and to strive lawfully, as long as I can stand on my feet, and there is breath in me.
Herewith I will bid you adieu, my dear friends D. and P., and the daughters, and commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, hoping that you will follow. Adieu, my dear friends, at whose table I ate bread with joy for the last time, and we sang a hymn to the honor of God. Adieu, my dear friends, in hope that we shall eat bread together in the kingdom of God, and drink the oil of joy and the new wine.
By me Hendrick Verstralen, in bonds for the testimony of the truth, on Palm Sunday, A. D. 1571.
Hendrick Verstralen.
A LETTER FROM HENDRICK VERSTRALEN, WRITTEN TO HIS BRETHREN AND SISTERS.
We prisoners and bound in the Lord for the eternal truth’s sake, Hendrick Verstralen and Maeyken Deynoots, your very weak brother and sister in the Lord, wish our very dear and affectionately beloved brethren and sisters, who in the Lord stand in like faith with us, and are gone out from Babylon, no more to touch the unclean thing, nor to be yoked together any more with unbelievers, but are come unto Jerusalem, into the church of the living God, there to serve the Lord your God, around the slaughter house, where some of you are still spared, as the prophet Jeremiah says (Jer. 11:19), to be baptized; much consolation, gladness and joy in all your hearts, from God our heavenly Father, and this through Jesus Christ his only, eternally begotten Son, full of grace and truth, through this our High Priest and mercy seat, who offered himself to God his Father for us, on the tree of the cross, that through his death he might prepare us the entrance to eternal life. Through this innocent and spotless Lamb, that took away our sins, we bow the knee of our heart day and night before God our heavenly Father, that he would spread his peace among you as a river, and confirm you, my dear brethren and sisters in the Lord, with his Holy Spirit, that you may be strengthened in the inner man, and keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and love (Eph. 4:3), so that we, my dear brethren and sisters, who are bought and redeemed with the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, may together serve the Lord in holiness and righteousness acceptably before him, as long as we are in this tabernacle. Amen.
O thou camp of the Lord, thou city of the living God, may the Lord set watchmen everywhere on thy walls, that never hold their peace day nor night (Is. 62:6); but that thy teachers may, as David says, be filled with much blessing, and gain one victory after another, so that the vineyard of the Lord may be planted, and thou Jerusalem be built, thou temple of the Lord, though in a sorrowful time. Let every one gird his sword to his side, and let him build with the one hand, and with the other let him hold the spear, so that the enemies who would prevent our working may be repelled, so that Zion alone may be shown prepared. O my dear brethren and sisters, we wish you from God, that you may be built together a spiritual house and habitation of God; that God’s law may be written in all your hearts, and his commandment be in your mind, and you thus remain sons and daughters of God in whom he may dwell and walk: that he would keep you, that you will never touch the unclean thing, but may approve yourselves in all things as ministers of God, so that the name of the Lord may be praised from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same. O brethren and sisters, that your light may arise as the morning star, and you remain a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a peculiar people, so that you, dear brethren and sisters, may everywhere lift up holy hands to God, and offer up to him the fruit of your lips, spiritual sacrifices, so that the vial of the Lord may be filled with incense from the prayers of the saints. 1 Tim. 2:8; Heb. 13:15; Rev. 5:8. O thou bride of the Lamb, who from love of your bridegroom Christ must be zealous unto death, and bring forth the fruits of righteousness with many sorrows and pains, and be sick of love to him; may the Lord our God lay his left hand under your head, and embrace you with his right hand (Cant. 2:6), thou Eve regenerated by Christ your husband through the incorruptible seed of the living word of God proceeding from the fatherly heart. O thou beautiful daughter of the almighty Father, who art now presented to his Son Jesus, the Lord from heaven, and through faith in him shalt have eternal life; may the eternal, almighty Father richly pour out upon you his blessing and the power of the Holy Ghost, and make you fruitful and fit for every good work, so that you may win his Son Jesus many sons and daughters, that his wine press may soon be filled through the number of his saints (Rev. 6:11), and you may thus the sooner see the destruction of our enemies, who are innumerably many, and have bent our back, and walk over us as over a street, and reward us evil for good, because they cannot build with us on the spiritual house of the Lord, because they are uncircumcised of heart and carnally minded. Against these our enemies, may God arm us and you, my dear brethren and sisters in the Lord, with the armor of righteousness, [and grant] that we may be shod with the Gospel of peace, and our loins be girt about with truth, always having the two edged sword of the Spirit at our side, thus preserving our helmet of salvation with the shield of faith, guarding the knapsack of love, and thus following the Captain of our faith, as Christian soldiers, boldly waging the war of the Lord, under the bloody banner of Christ; so that we, our dear brethren and sisters, may through the grace of God gain the victory of a good fight in godly conflict, and obtain the crown of eternal life. Amen.