A BRIEF LETTER FROM JOOS VERBEECK, WRITTEN IN PRISON AT ANTWERP, TO HIS WIFE.

Grace and mercy from God our heavenly Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, be to my dear wife and sister in the Lord, for an affectionate greeting, all the days of your life, in the true earnestness of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

I greet you and all my five children most affectionately. Bring them up in the nurture of the Lord, and behave yourself as becomes holy women, in order to teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to be discreet, chaste, and obedient to their husbands; and firmly persevere 627 in the same rule in which you stand. Eph. 6:4; Tit. 2:2.

May the Lord fit you for every good work that becomes your calling. Herewith I commend you to Almighty God, and to the word of his grace; may he grant that we may see each other in eternity.

By me, Joos Verbeeck, your husband, and brother in the Lord; written at Antwerp in prison,—where I am confined for the testimony of Jesus Christ—with my left hand, with great trouble, as my right hand has been tortured lame.

Greet all the friends, especially the ministers.