ANOTHER LETTER OF JOOST VERKINDERT, WRITTEN TO HIS DEAR WIFE, AND, GENERALLY, TO ALL BRETHREN AND SISTERS IN THE LORD; IN WHICH AN ACCOUNT IS GIVEN OF SEVERAL DISPUTATIONS HELD WITH THE BISHOP’S COMMISSARY CONCERNING THE FAITH.

Grace, joy and peace from God the heavenly Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath shined in our hearts, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son; together with the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from both the Father and the Son, to comfort all them that are in tribulation and sorrow. To him be praise, honor, glory, dominion, power, and majesty, forever and ever. Amen.

This I wish you as a friendly greeting, my dear and beloved wife and sister in the Lord, together with all fellow believers of our most holy faith; informing you, that our mind is still fixed, to adhere to the eternal truth, and to the faith once delivered to the saints, trusting thereby to obtain eternal life, not through our own merits, but through pure grace, and also because of the hope, that Christ with his faithful mouth says: Whosoever loseth his life for my sake and the Gospel’s, the same shall find it hereafter in life eternal. Matt. 10:39; Luke 17:33; John 12:25.

O my dear brethren and sisters, let every one follow the advice of Christ, and search the Holy Scriptures; for they are they which testify of him. John 5:39. And Paul says: Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning. Rom. 15:4. And let us not fear men, which must perish like grass; but let us fear him which, after he hath killed, hath power also to cast soul and body into hell; fear him. Is. 51:12; Luke 12:5. For heaven and earth shall pass away, but his word shall abide forever. Matt. 5:18.