A Testament Written By Jelis Bernaerts To His Wife, When He Lay In Prison At Antwerp, Where He Was Put To Death For The Word Of The Lord, A. D. 1559.

Therefore, my dear and beloved wife, we have (verse 19) a free and secure entrance into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the vail, that is to say, his flesh; and we have a high priest over the house of God, which is the church, which he cleansed with his blood, that it might be holy, without spot or wrinkle; of which you are a member, for it is the body of Christ, and we the members of that same body, and Christ the head and priest of the house of God, as stated. Eph. 5:26,27; 1:22. Hence, my most beloved, adhere to it diligently, and let us always, draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and let us wash our bodies with pure water, that is, put off all uncleanness of the heart and the flesh, and perfect all righteousness and holiness; and hold fast the profession of your faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised; and always consider yourself—this I entreat you, my most beloved—to provoke unto love and to good works. Hebrews 10:22–24; 2 Cor. 7:1.

Since you are a child of the New Testament, I write you this for a testament according to your request. Hence it is my request of you, my dear lamb, despised of men, but chosen of God, and called to his Testament, since he left us the Testament, that we should thereby remember his death; namely the breaking of the bread, showing by it that he was broken for us on the tree of the cross, and that we should also remember thereby, that we are delivered through him from the hand of our enemies. This he left us for an everlasting Testament, to observe it, even as the children of Israel were commanded to eat the passover, and to observe it yearly for a memorial of their having been delivered from King Pharaoh; all of which was a figure and shadow, of which we now have the true substance, in the true observance of our redemption through the true passover Christ, and his communion, in which you are certainly included, since it is but a short time ago that we showed it among the others by the breaking of bread, and drinking of wine, that you are a partaker of the New Testament, and of all the glorious promises which are promised the children of the New Testament. Hence it is my request that you will faithfully continue therein unto the end, so that you may inherit all the promises, for he that overcometh shall inherit all 602 things; to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne; he that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; he that overcometh, him will I confess in heaven before my Father, and will write his name in the book of life; and other beautiful promises that, as you well know, are promised to all that overcome. Revelation 21:7; 3:5,21.

Therefore, my most beloved, see that you remain faithful; for you are still in the wilderness, where you must be proved yet, even as Israel was proved in the wilderness forty years, that God might make manifest thereby, what was in their hearts. Hence know that all perished who did not remain steadfast, and that they could not inherit the promises, as stated before. But now we have a better testament, which is for ever, and not as Israel, a law written in tables of stone, but written in the tables of our hearts. Heb. 8:6.

Hence, my most beloved, since we have a better testament, walk the better in it, and continue steadfast in the faith, and let this be manifested by the fruits of faith, and the law which is now written in your heart, by the Spirit of God; let him be read from you, and this by fulfilling the works of the Spirit, that you may thus be an epistle of Christ, which may be read by all to whom you are manifest, as Paul testifies of the Corinthians (2 Cor. 3:3), that they were the epistle of Christ ministered by them, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables in their hearts; for Christ also says (Matthew 5:16): “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father”. For if we now have a new testament given by Christ, who is our Leader and Lawgiver, we must keep his commandments, follow him (as I wrote to you in the other two letters), and show forth his image, even as the image of the Father was shown forth through him, as he said to Philip: “Philip, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.” John 14:9,10.