G. Kleermaecker, with Sijntgen van Rousselare and Maeyken Gosens, in the Year 1573

A letter from G. Kleermaecker, imprisoned at

Antwerp with Sijntgen van Rousselare, wife

of Jeronymus, where they laid down their

lives for the truth

The abundant grace of God, the great love and mercy of His Son, and the power, working and illumination of the Holy Ghost, this, my very dear and beloved sister in the Lord, I wish you as a heartfelt and affectionate greeting, by which we, unworthy ones, are born anew of God, to serve the Lord in righteousness and holiness, to the praise of the Lord and to the salvation of our souls. For this may the Lord, the Father of all mercy, make us fit, and strengthen and confirm us; to whom alone be praise, glory, and honor, forever and ever. Amen.

After this greeting, my very dear and beloved sister in the Lord, I inform you that I am, the Lord be praised forever, still reasonably well according to the flesh, and also as regards the mind; and I trust by the grace of God to go with our true Captain, Joshua, to the promised land (which has been promised to us unworthy ones out of grace, and shown to us through faith), hoping and trusting by the grace of God to pass unharmed over the Jordan; yet I wish from the depth of my heart that my mind were more valiant for it.

Further, my very dear and beloved sister, I inform you that at the visit my heart was greatly rejoiced by you, because I saw your great joy and gladness in the Lord, your complete self-renunciation, and the resignation of your heart and mind in the Lord, for which we cannot thank and praise the Lord enough, that He has given you such a treasure in earthen vessels, that you do not want to forsake the Lord, neither for life nor for death, nor for any torment which the tyrants might inflict upon you, my very dear and beloved sister in the Lord. The Lord, the God of all grace, strengthen and confirm you to the end, and fulfill in you all the good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of faith with power, so that the name of our dear Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and that you may fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life, to which we are called, if we hold the beginning of the Christian life steadfast to the end. Second Thessalonians 1, verses 11 and 12; First Timothy 6, verse 12; Hebrews 3, verse 14. For, dear sister in the Lord, if we rightly consider the life of Christ, we find nothing but tribulation, suffering and distress. He who was the Lord of lords, for our sakes left His Father's kingdom; He came into the world to call our guilt upon Him, and paid the debt with His bitter suffering and death on the tree of the cross, leaving us in all things an example, as the apostle says, that we should follow His steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten; but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously: who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed. For you were as sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls. And in another place the apostle says: "Consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, so that you do not grow weary and faint in your minds." Hebrews 12, verse 3. And so also the prophet utters his complaint for him, saying: "I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All those who see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head." Psalm 22, verses 6 and 7. In still another place Isaiah says: "He has no form nor comeliness; and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid, as it were, our faces from him . . . . He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he did not open his mouth." Isaiah 53, verses 2, 3, and 7. Besides this, my much beloved sister in the Lord, consider Christ's entire life, how He began, lived, and ended it; you will find nothing but suffering, humiliation, misery and contempt, which He suffered for our sakes in humility, so that the apostle says of the Lord that in the days of His flesh He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to God, who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because He honored God. Hebrews 5, verse 7. So then, my dear sister in the Lord, this beginning of the Christian life must remain with us to the end, as said before, and then we shall also be partakers of Him, and with all God's children inherit His kingdom through grace, for which reason He went away to prepare a place for us there, even as He says: "I go to your and my Father, to prepare a place for you; and if I go, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also," John 20, verse 17; John 14, verse 3. Therefore, my dear sister in the Lord, though our God now hides His face from us for a little while, yet He will gather us again with everlasting kindness, as the prophet says: "I will lead you into my house, and give you a place within my walls, and a name better than that of sons and of daughters; indeed, I will give you an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. Indeed, he will lay our stones with fair colors, and lay our foundations with sapphires, and will make our windows of crystal and our gates of carbuncles." Isaiah 54, verses 7 and 8; Isaiah 56, verse 5; Isaiah 54, verses 11 and 12. "Indeed, there is a city built," says John, "of pure gold, where, my very dear sister in the Lord, you shall see the King in his beauty, whose head is as the finest gold, and his locks are curled and black as a raven; his eyes are as the eyes of doves; his cheeks are as growing beds of spices of the apothecary; his hands are as gold rings set with turquoises, his body is as pure ivory. His legs are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of gold; his mouth is sweet, and his word is lovely." Revelation 21, verse 18; Song of Songs 5, verses 11 to 16. In short, we shall find more there than it is possible to tell us or to describe.

See, my dear sister in the Lord, such is our Friend and Bridegroom; therefore rejoice, you betrothed of the Lord, for He who has chosen you from among many thousands is fairer than all the children of men.

Therefore, my dear sister in the Lord, adorn yourself with the fine linen of righteousness (Revelation 19, verse 8) in honor of your Bridegroom, until the days of tribulation shall be at an end, and the Lord shall turn again the captivity of Zion, and wipe away all tears from your eyes, and make our joy perfect, so that instead of our mourning and sighing we shall sing as in the night of a glorious feast, and shall, with the hundred and forty-four thousand virgins who were redeemed from the earth, stand before the throne of God, having the name of our God written in our foreheads, having harps in our hands, and singing a new song. Revelation 7, verse 4; Revelation 14, verses 1 to 4.

Behold, dear sister, this our enemies shall see and be confounded, who now say to us: "Where is your God?" Our eyes shall then behold them trodden down as mire in the streets, and they shall be ashes under the feet of the righteous. Malachi 4, verse 3. Therefore, dear sister in the Lord, let us be sincere in love, and obtain the victory in the Christian's conflict; to him who overcomes He will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Revelation 2, verse 7. This may the only wise God grant us, the Father of grace and mercy, who alone has power in heaven and on earth, that we, justified through His grace, may become heirs of eternal life. To Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think, to Him alone be praise, glory and honor, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3, verses 20 and 21.

Faithful is He who also will do it, according to His promise; for I am God, He says through the prophet Malachi, and I do not change, namely, in His promises. First Thessalonians 5, verse 24; Malachi 3, verse 6.

With this, my very dear and beloved sister in the Lord, I will commend you to the Lord, and to the rich Word of His grace. Adieu, adieu; if we should see each other's face no more in this world, yet I hope that we shall see each other in eternity with our God, where there will be no more parting. Once more, adieu, and take my simple letter in good part; this I humbly ask: and if I have written too little or too much in anything, I beg you to excuse me for it. With this I warmly greet you, and my wife also warmly greets you with the peace of the Lord; and Sanderijntgen, and another maiden from Zealand, named Magdaleentgen, also greet you most warmly. I ask you very kindly, my dear sister, let me have a letter from you, for this will be very welcome to me, and more agreeable than I can write you. Farewell.

By me, your weak brother and servant, to the utmost of my ability.

G. KLEERMAECKER, V. S. B.