HUGO JACOB KRÆN, AND HIS WIFE MARY, WITH TWO OTHERS, A. D. 1532.

When the word of God, through the grace of the Lord, came again to the light, and was accepted with great desire by many, and attested and confirmed by the life and death of a great number, said word of God was also received and accepted (Acts 8:14; 17:11) by one Hugo Jacob Kræn of Assersouw, his wife Mary, and two others, whose names we have not learned. And as it was foretold by Paul, that “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12); and by Isaiah that: “He that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey” (Isa. 59:15); so it was also seen in the case of these persons; for as soon as they renounced this dark world (Eph. 6:12; 1 John 1:5), with its carnal walk, and false, invented worship, and sought and followed the eternal light and glory of Christ Jesus (Matt. 19:28), they were hated, and persecuted unto death, by the children of darkness and Belial. John 15:18,19. Finally Mary, the wife of Hugo Jacob, was apprehended at Haarlem, and after suffering many trials, was drowned at said place, in the year A. D. 1532, enduring it with great steadfastness; thus confirming with her death the accepted truth. Rev. 2:10. But Hugo Jacob Kræn; with two of his fellow believers, were brought prisoners into Gravenhage, where they had to suffer much for the truth. But as they were founded upon a rock (Matt. 16:18), they could, by no torments, be brought to apostatize. Therefore the servants of antichrist condemned them to die, and this, such a terrible death, that all who saw it must justly have pitied them! for, in the year 1532, at said place, they were chained to stakes, a great fire built around them, and in this manner they were roasted until they expired. And as they did not love their lives here, but obediently surrendered them for the testimony of Jesus, and died steadfastly; they, at the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, shall, for this mortal garment of the flesh, be clothed with the immortal, and be rewarded by God with the crown of everlasting glory. Rev. 12:17; 2:13; 2 Timothy 1:8; Acts 22:18; 23:11; 2 Thess. 1:7; Phil. 3:21; Wis. 5:16; 2 Esdr. 2:43; 1 Cor. 9:25; 1 Pet. 5:4; James 1:12; Rev. 2:10.