Furthermore, Beliken, my love, I understand it to be your request, that I shall write to you once more, which it is impossible for me to refuse you; yet I am unworthy to write to you, because of the thorn which I have in my flesh, for my weakness is so great, that I might well say: Oh that my head were waters, that I might day and night bewail my miserable weakness; for my weakness is exceeding great, and my sorrow moreover is not small, for when I think, O Beliken, my only lamb, that I must part from you, and leave you among this adulterous generation, O, then my heart is burdened unto death, and when I think; if God should take you out of the flesh before me, O then my heart is troubled still more, for I feel that after your departure, I should not see a single happy day. Thus my thoughts distress me from every side, so that I may well say with Susanna: O in what a great strait am I now! Sus. 22. Yea, this miserable state has so laid hold on me, that I may well cry to God, and say with Hezekiah: O Lord, ease me: for I suffer distress (Is. 38:14), yea such distress as is suffered by the hinds, when they writhe to bring forth. Moreover, I am ofttimes more despondent than Jonah, when he was smitten down by the sun, Jon. 4:8. Hence I may also well say: “O tribulation and vexation, how long will ye live in me?” Yea, moreover, I may well say with David: “My enemies ploughed upon my back, and made long their furrows.” Ps. 129:3. But then I console myself again, O my love, when I remember, that God, as Paul says, chasteneth whom he loveth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth; and with the temptation also makes a way to escape, that one may be able to bear it, which I have often experienced. Heb. 12:6; 1 Cor. 10:13. Hence I also thank the Lord, who has everywhere delivered me from the snare of the fowler. Ps. 91:3. Therefore I will also with David praise the Lord and glorify him among many, for he stands at the right hand of his poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul. Ps. 92:1; 109:31. Hence, O my chosen, dearest love, let us firmly cleave to the Lord, and not stumble, though the wicked persecutes him that is more righteous than himself. For Job says: The ungodly pluck the child from the breast and make it an orphan in the city; they cause men to sigh, and the souls of the slain to cry out; and God troubleth them not. Job 24:9,12. But it is nevertheless certain, that God will not always say amen to their course. For he says by the prophet: “I hold my peace for a time, and am still, but at the last I will avenge myself on mine enemies. Isaiah 42:15. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever. If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh over the blood of the slain, and over the captives, and over the uncovered head of the enemy.” Hence, Moses says: “Rejoice, all ye that are his people; for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and render vengeance to his adversaries; but he will be merciful unto the land of his people.” Deuteronomy 32:40–43. Thus, O my love, my only lamb, let us be of good courage; though we must now sow in tears, we shall in due time, I hope, reap an abundant harvest. For God says through the prophet: “Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her; rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her; that ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.” Is. 66:10,11.
Thus, O my chosen, dearest love, let us for a little while help the Lord bear his reproach; for it is a faithful saying, says Paul: “If we suffer with Christ, we shall also reign with him, and if we die with him we shall also live with him; and then all tears shall be wiped away from our eyes, and all our tribulation, shall be changed into eternal joy. Hence, O my love, let us diligently pray the Lord, that this promise may be fulfilled in us, and that we may be found citizens in the beautiful city where the walls are of sapphire and the streets pure gold. Rev. 21:18.
Further my love, I will commend you to our dear Lord; may he keep and govern you as his daughter, for I take leave now and bid you adieu.
O adieu, my affectionately beloved, for we must part in tears. O adieu, Beliken van der Straten, my very dear wife, whose hand I took with tears of joy. O bitter parting, how hard it is for me! Once more I say adieu. O Beliken, my chosen, dearest love, I thank you most affectionately for all your pure love. May the Lord recompense you. Greet from me those that are with you. Adrian also greets you much. The Lord be with you.
Written in my bonds, by me, your weak brother and servant, as much as I am able.
Maerten van der Straten.
THIRD LETTER FROM MAERTEN VAN DER STRATEN, TO HIS WIFE.
I Maerten van der Straten your affectionately beloved husband and brother in the Lord, yet both unworthily, wish you my very dear, beloved wife and sister in the Lord, Beliken van der Straten, much grace and mercy from God our heavenly Father, and may the love of his Son be multiplied to you, and may God, moreover, fill you, like Jeremiah, with his Holy Spirit, that you may thereby withstand all the subtle assaults of the devil, and after the victory, with all God’s children, receive the crown of glory upon the pleasant mountain where, according to the writing of Esdras roses and lilies grow. 2 Esd. 2:19. And, my dearly beloved, I pray the Lord, to make you meet and worthy to play the new song before the throne of his glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
Cordially written out of tender love, to you Beliken van der Straten. O my love, my chosen, dearest love, which through God’s providence was given to me before his church by my father, and whose hand I took with tears of joy, for which I also thank the Lord, that he gave me you, for I would not have thought myself worthy of you. Hence this is also a reason for me, to love you the more. Yet, I call God to witness, that I love you as my soul, yea, more than the heart in my body, which I am bound also to do according to the demand of the Scriptures, for, since I, according to John’s writing, am bound to love my brother, how much more then must I love you since you, according to the word of God and Paul’s declaration, are flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bones. And the apostle also says: “No man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it.” Eph. 5:29. In short, he that loves his wife also loves himself.
Further, Beliken, my beloved, after this my proper and Christian salutation, let me, please, inform your love that I, the Lord be praised, am in tolerably good health according to the flesh, and according to the spirit God be praised, my mind is still fixed to fear the Lord, all the days of my life, according to my weak ability. Furthermore, my dearest, I have the same confidence concerning you, that you are well both in soul and body, prepared to live and die to the glory of the Lord. This worshipful, good God, who has broken the bow of the mighty, and, according to the word of the prophet, through the gracious goodness gives both wine and milk without price (Is. 55:1), may strengthen and confirm you and us all in this lion’s den, where we, on every hand, are so severely assailed and so greatly distressed, like Israel, when they were compassed about by Holofernes. Jud. 7. Yea, the false elders do so distress us, that we can with Susanna find nowhere a place of escape, but behold death before our eyes on every hand; for our persecutors are evening wolves, that leave nothing over till the morning. Hab. 1:8. Hence we may well say with David: “They break in pieces thy people, O Lord, and afflict thine heritage. They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. Psalm 94:5,6,21.