A LETTER WRITTEN BY CORNELIS THE SHOEMAKER, TO HIS WIFE WHILE IN BONDS. HE WAS AFTERWARDS BURNED WITH THREE OTHERS, SEALING THIS LETTER WITH HIS BLOOD, IN THE GREAT MARKET PLACE AT ANTWERP, THE 13TH OF SEPTEMBER, 1567.

The grace and mercy of God the Father, the love of the Son, and the communion and peace of the 685 Holy Ghost, who is sent us from the Father, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to the comfort of all true and faithful children of God; by whom we are led, taught and healed; the same keep your heart, understanding and mind in Christ Jesus, to the praise and glory of his heavenly Father, to the salvation of your troubled soul, and to the protection of all the brethren and sisters that fear and love the Lord. This I wish you, my affectionately and much beloved wife, as a heartfelt greeting.

My dearest wife, whom I wedded before God and his church, and took to wife according to the ordinance of the Lord, I wish you comfort, joy and gladness in all your great sorrow which has now come upon you through my bonds and imprisonment. O my dear wife, I most earnestly pray the Lord for you, that he would comfort you, since I well know, my dear lamb, that you are very sorrowful on my account. But I pray you, lay your grief aside, if possible, for a little while, and comfort yourself with the Author of the faith, and look to Jesus the Finisher. Heb. 12:2. Walk henceforth in all righteousness; make good use of the time of grace, and always remember what great grace the Lord has shown you; and bear in mind what a faithful God you serve, who will not forsake you. Rom. 6:13; Eph. 2:7; 1 Cor. 1:9.

O my most beloved lamb, I cannot fully praise or thank the Lord for all the great power and strength which he gives me in all my distress. Is. 40:29. He is so faithful a God, he gives me such courage, so that I may say with Paul: Who shall separate us from the love of God? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom. 8:35–39.

O my dear wife, I pray and exhort you, be patient in your tribulation, continue instant in prayer, and always remember the beautiful promises which are so abundantly promised us in the Scriptures, if we persevere unto the end. Matthew 10:22.

O let us well guard the treasure given us, so that no man may by any means deprive us of it. Hence continue steadfastly, and faint not; for though the outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for these are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:7,16–18.

Hence, my dear and much beloved wife, do not cease to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, and to follow his footsteps. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, and that we shall be clothed with it: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. 2 Cor. 5:1–5.

O my dear wife, since we shall put off the flesh, and inherit such a dwelling, let us walk fearlessly in faith before God and his church, and purpose not to depart from the Lord, nor to separate from his love—which he has shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost—on account of any affliction or tribulation; then he can succor and comfort you in your request, when you are deprived of all human help and comfort; since he comes to the help of those who forsake their own selves, and of the despairing, for he dwells and will dwell alone in the hearts of men, and would not have us serve any one besides him.