Author's Invocation

JOSEPH F. SOHM.

To God, my Lord, the Creator, Preserver and Redeemer of my soul, be praise, honor and majesty, forever and ever.

Pardon me, O my Lord and my God, that I, who am only dust and ashes, come near to You. Genesis 18, verse 27. I am afraid to come to You, because You are a consuming fire, while I am wood, hay and stubble, liable to be burned; yet I must not stay away from You, because I have what is Yours, indeed, what is Your most precious treasure, even the blood and offering of the saints; I must come and offer it to You.

May it be well pleasing to You, my dear Savior, that I offer what was offered up to You long ago. But I have full confidence that You will not reject me. I believe I have the assurance that this will be acceptable to You, for Your servant David, a man after Your own heart, sang, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." Psalm 116, verse 15.*

Moreover You know, O my Savior and Redeemer, the steadfast faith, the unquenchable love, and the faithfulness even to death, of those about whom I have written, and who gave their precious lives and bodies as a sacrifice to You.

Besides, You have spared my life, so that I, unworthy and weak as I am for such a task, might still carry it out; for the snares of death had closed around me, keeping me bound nearly six months during last fall, winter and spring, so that I often thought I could not survive. Nevertheless Your power strengthened me, Your hand rescued me, and by Your grace I was led safely through, so that in the midst of my difficulties, and contrary to the advice and opinion of the physicians (for the zeal and love of Your saints had taken complete possession of me), I wrote and finished the greater part of this work.

The sacrifices which are acceptable to You are a broken spirit, and so on. Psalm 51, verse 17. But this offering, O God, was accompanied with many tears, caused partly by my distress, as I, because of the weakness of my nature, called on You for help, and partly by joy, as I found and experienced Your comfort and help.

Yet what caused my tears to flow more than anything else was the remembrance of the sufferings and the death of Your martyrs, who, altogether innocent, as defenseless lambs, were led to the water, the fire, the sword, or to the wild beasts in the arena, there to suffer and to die for Your name's sake. However, I felt no small degree of joy as I considered the living confidence they had in Your grace, and how valiantly they fought their way through the strait gate. [n6-1]

Ah, how often I wished to have had a part with them! My soul went with them, so to speak, into prison;* I encouraged them at the tribunal to bear their sentence of death patiently, without protest and without flinching. It seemed to me as though I went with them to the place of execution, the scaffold or the stake, saying to them in their extremity, Fight valiantly, dear brothers and sisters; the crown of life awaits you. I almost imagined that I had died with them; so inseparably was my love bound up with them, for Your holy name's sake.

Therefore I ask You once more, O my God, to let this sacrifice be well pleasing in Your sight, and to accept it from me, Your most humble servant, as a token of love toward You as well as toward Your blessed martyrs.

But before I leave this, strengthen me with Your good Spirit, and arm me with the comfort of Your grace, so that I may not only confess You here with my mouth, but also honor You by a virtuous and godly way of life (Psalm 119, verse 5), in the most holy faith, not refusing, if necessity requires it and Your honor is advanced by it, to give my life and body into suffering and death, so that I may become like Your dearest friends, my slain fellow brothers and sisters, and receive with them the same reward in the great day of Your recompense. Song of Songs 1, verse 4.

This is the desire and petition of him whose name is known to You, and who asks You for grace now and in the hour of his death, and in the ages of eternity. O Lord, so let it be! For Yours, O God, is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

T. J. VAN BRAGHT.

Dort, July the 23rd, 1659.

NOTE. The ADVERTISEMENT by the Dutch Publishers is omitted, as we consider it irrelevant to the present Edition. It contains a few plain statements of some corrections made in regard to obsolete words and phrases; that many noteworthy additions compiled from authentic records have been made, and so on. Translator.