Article IV

What sin is, and whereby sin becomes sin; and

what are and will be the wages of sin, be;

fore God, or God's punishment o f

sinners hereafter

What sin is, is clearly shown by the holy Scriptures. The prophet Samuel said to Saul, when the latter had transgressed the commandment of the Lord: "Disobedience is as the sin [mark, sin] of witchcraft." I Sam. 15:23. John says: "All unrighteousness is sin." I John 5:17. James says

"To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." Jas. 4:17. (Mark what sin is). Paul says: "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Rom. 14:23.

From this and the like, my children, learn to know sin; as Paul says: "By the law is the knowledge of sin. I had not known sin but by the law."

The law causes sin to become exceeding sinful; for when it says: "Thou shalt not covet," sin takes occasion, and works in us all manner of concupiscence. Rom. 3:20; 7:7, 13. From this we also perceive, whereby sin became sin, namely, by the command and prohibition of God.

Every one who transgresses the things which God has commanded, commits sin, and it is also called sin, and punished as sin, fully and abundantly, in both Testaments. The tree of knowledge was not unclean for Adam, except through the commandment; his transgression was also called sin. As regards the punishment for this sin, read Gen. 3:14. The heathen daughters and wives were not unclean for the Jews, save through the commandment of God, who would not have it. Concerning the punishment, read judges 3; Num. 25. The sanctuary, or ark of God, which was certainly clean, was not unclean for any tribe, to touch or bear it, except through the commandment. Num. 4:17. The gods of the heathen were not unclean for Israel, save through the prohibition and proscription of God, also the commandment and punishment. I Kings 15.

Behold, thus you can perceive whereby sin becomes sin, namely, through the commandment, and the transgressing of the commandment; for where no commandment is, there is no sin, for without the law sin was dead. Rom. 4:15; 7:8. For sin, or sinful action was in the world; but sin is 'not imputed when there is no law. Rom. 5:13.

Now, dear children, as soon as you know sin, learn to shun it as you shun fire; for if you approach sin, it will embrace you; but the stings and wounds thereof cannot be healed. Sir. 21:2, 3.

Therefore, learn now to understand further, what proceeds from sin, and what are the wages of sin, for these are damnation and death. Rom. 6:23. It is enmity against God, because it is not subject to the law of God. Rom. 8:7. Hence hear further the terrible, relentless and awful punishment of God upon sin and sinners, which has ever taken place and will yet take place. Take heed, my dear children, I counsel you, as much as you value your souls, to this special, eternal punishment of sin and sinners. Thus says the Lord: "I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once. Who among you, he says, will give ear to this? Who will hearken and hear for the time to come? The day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. It is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompense for the controversy of Zion. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day." I sa. 42:14, 23; 13:9; 34:8, etc.

This impending calamity, the punishment and righteous judgment of God, was announced and promised a very long time; for when Enoch, the seventh from Adam, was upon earth, he said: "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." Jude 14, 15.

Mark, that God threatens and gives sufficient warning before, as He did to Assur. "Woe be unto thee, Assur, thou that hidest the unrighteous in thee! O thou wicked people, remember what I did unto Sodom and Gomorrah; whose land lieth in clods of pitch and heaps of ashes; even so also will I do unto them that hear me not, saith the Almighty Lord." II Esd. 2:8, 9.

The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire. Matt. 13:41, 42. Then shall the Lord say unto them on His left hand

"Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was a hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink." Matt. 25:41, 42. Behold, my dear children, thus shall it then go with those who do not now while it is time, regard this, being rich, filled and merry. For Christ says: "Woe unto you that are rich, for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep. Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!" Luke 6:24-26. When they lived, says Esdras, and received God's benefits they did not regard it; they despised his counsel while they had yet liberty, and contemned repentance; therefore they must know it after death by torment. II Esd. 9:10-12. While we lived and committed iniquity, we considered not that we should suffer for it after death. 7:56. For the wages of sin is death. Rom. 6:23. But, after thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds; to them who by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory, and honor, and immortality, eternal life; but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness; indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil. Rom. 2:5-9.

Understand again, my dear children, into what great danger our evil flesh plunges us here, slaying the soul. The lust and works of the flesh cause eternal sorrow and loss of heaven. As Paul says

"Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Now the works of the flesh are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, evil lusts" (read to the end of the seventeen points mentioned). And he says that they which do such things shall not inherit or possess the kingdom of God. Gal. 5:,16; I Cor. 6:9. Then it shall not be possible for any one to be spared from the vengeance of God, whether he know God, or whether he know Him not; if he has been disobedient to the Gospel, he must bear the severity of God. For Paul says: "When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; [mark] who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe." II Thess. 1:7-10.

To disobey the Gospel, is worthy of no small punishment; for he that, in the sight of two or three witnesses, transgressed the law of Moses (which is inferior to the Gospel in its saving power and operation, Rom. 8:3), had to die without mercy, says Paul, of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? Heb. 10:29. These must expect a terrible judgment, and the cruelty of the fire, which shall devour the adversaries. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; for God is a consuming fire. 10:31; 12:9. We know Him that hath said, "Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense." 10:30. See, since the Gospel is great of value and rich in saving power, therefore, on the other hand, the refusing, abusing, despising and transgressing of the same, is as much the greater crime and ingratitude, and deserving of sorer punishment, as Paul says, concerning Christ

"See that ye refuse not him that speaketh; for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth." Heb. 12:25, 26.

O my children, therefore this time of the Gospel, in which we now are, is a very precious, valuable and acceptable time, as also the Lord Himself frequently declares in the Gospel, as: "Had such mighty works been done in Tyre and Sidon. Why do ye not discern this acceptable time for you? Blessed are the ayes which see the things that ye see." Luke 10:23. Jesus says: "Jerusalem shall be destroyed [on account of her sins]; because they did not know the time of their visitation." Luke 19:44.

O my dear children, learn to discern good from evil; learn to know the wicked world, who think that they are holy men, Christians and believers in God, but are the synagogue of Satan (Rev. 2:9); which is evident from their whole spirit, life, and their wickedness; who because of their wickedness cannot bear, or tolerate among them, the lustre of the pious. But the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the evil and unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished; but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness. What God intends to do with such, He has typified and shown to us by sinners of former times [as we read]: "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment, and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly." II Pet. 2:4-6.

Understand here, that God spares neither the angels, nor the whole world, because they were great in number or highly esteemed and chosen; and thus it has often gone with great numbers, for the ungodly are not the better for being many. As also Sirach well says: "Rely not upon this that the multitude of those with whom thou doest evil is great, but remember that punishment is not far from thee. Therefore humble thyself from the heart, for the vengeance of the ungodly is fire and worms." Sirach 7:17, 18. For as one that cometh nigh wild beasts, and is torn by them, so it also goes with him that attacheth himself to the ungodly, and mingleth in their sins. 12:13, 14. One child that fears the Lord is more acceptable to Him than a thousand that are ungodly. Hence let no one depend upon this that his companions in wickedness are many nor upon boasting of the mercy of God, before thy repentance; for when the fire of the punishment of God is kindled, it consumes all the wicked, great and small. Behold, the fire burned up the whole congregation of the ungodly; and wrath was kindled over the unbelieving. He spared not the old giants who perished with their strength. Neither did He spare those among whom Lot sojourned, but condemned them because of their pride, and destroyed the whole land without mercy, who had transgressed all bounds in sinning. Thus He took away six hundred thousand, because they were disobedient. How then should a single one that is disobedient escape unpunished? For though He is merciful, yet also wrath is with Him. He can be appeased, but He also fearfully punishes. As His mercy is great, so is also His correction; He judgeth a man according to his works. The ungodly shall not escape with his spoils, and the patience of the godly shall not be frustrated. Behold, before God a great multitude is of little avail. He that sinneth must die. For every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished. Prov. 16:5. The strength of the ungodly is like a heap of tow which is consumed with fire. The way of sinners is made plain with stones (it is true), but at the end thereof is the pit of hell. Sir. 21:9,

10. Hell also hath opened wide her mouth, to receive great and small, prince and multitude. Isa. 5:14. Many be called, but few chosen: Wide is the gate, and broad the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which walk in it. I further say': "The great majority will be damned and lost. This is too clear to be denied." II Esd. 8:3.

Dear children, he that does not fear or believe God, does not regard these awful assurances and sure threats, as also the Scripture says: "Such threatening is too far off, and when a wicked man heareth it, he yet cleaveth to his folly and error." How truly does Solomon say: "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God. Eccl. 8:11, 12. I have long time holden my peace, says the Lord; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once. Isa. 42:14. When a child is about to be brought forth, the pains of travail slack not a moment; even so shall not the plagues be slack to come upon the earth; the world shall mourn, and sorrow shall come upon it. II Esd. 16:38, 39.

Oh, happy he who always fears; but he whose heart is hardened shall fall into misfortune, as has been sufficiently heard. Mark here the longsuffering of God toward sinners; but He nevertheless eventually punished them. How truly does Paul say: "God is not mocked." Thinkest thou that I shall always hold my peace, saith the Lord, that thou dost not fear me at all? But I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works, that they are unprofitable. Then when thou shalt cry, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them away, and vanity shall take them. Isa. 57:13. The holy Scriptures do justly call our God a consuming fire. As to what fire this is, read Isa. 10:16; Joel 2:3; Nah. 3:15; Zech. 11:1. Manasses truly says

"O God, thine angry threatening toward sinners is importable." Man. verse 5. Nahum speaks thus of the fierceness of the wrath of God: "The mountains quake before him, and the hills fear. The earth shaketh before him, yea, the whole circuit of the earth, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? And who can abide before his anger? His fury burneth like fire, and the rocks burst in pieces before him." Nahum 1:5, 6. Micah says: "The Lord cometh forth out of his place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place. For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel." Mic. 1:3-5.

Oh, who could write enough of such scripture admonitions! Truly, my dear children, behold, he that recognizes the holy Scriptures, the Bible, as the sure word, testimony, word and sentence of God, and considers well worthy of belief what is written in the same concerning God, and especially regarding His faithful warning against all sin, the promised recompense for transgression, exemplified in His punishment of sin as exhibited in many, together with all His strict and solemn oaths in which He has denied His kingdom to the impenitent, as has already been mentioned here in part, and will yet briefly be pointed out; such a man, I say, may well tremble before God, and with David the skin and hair of his head may shudder. And if there be but one spark of the fear of God, and faith in His Word, in his inmost heart, his laughter may and must turn into weeping till he obtains peace instead of enmity with God. In the first place I will speak of God's warning against sin.

But, my dear lambs, I am deprived of time further to complete my purpose and intention. This however was almost finished, but I intended to improve it and to copy it in a far more legible and better form. However, it is now done, and I must and will now disengage myself, and prepare to die, as I think, in four days. And, behold, my dear children, I rejoice in this, and am of good cheer in the Lord, and trust not to spare my body for the truth, but to present it in worship as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. And I trust by the grace of God, that I have been to you, my dear children, a father who have set you a good example, in my life and death. When you attain to the years of understanding, think thoroughly on it and so follow Christ with me, as He has gone before us, in all suffering and holiness; and we shall meet again, and this in eternal joy and in the kingdom of heaven, forever.

My dear children, though you do not live together, love one another the more ardently, and show your love in whatever way you can, as by greetings and instructive letters to one another. Make copies of this little book, so that each of you three children may have one.

I first send it to you my dear son Alewijn Hendricks, because you are the oldest. Remember what I have written for your instruction; communicate it also to your little sisters. Farewell now, an eternal farewell, my three little orphans.

Written by me, your dear father,

HENDRICK ALEWIJNS.