TESTAMENT WRITTEN BY DIRK PIETERS SMUEL, DECEASED IN PRISON, TO HIS WIFE, WHEN HE WAS PREPARING TO DIE FOR THE NAME AND TESTIMONY OF JESUS; IN WHICH HE COMFORTED AND ADMONISHED HER DILIGENTLY TO PROVIDE FOR THE BRINGING UP OF HER CHILDREN THAT THEY MIGHT LEARN TO FEAR GOD FROM THEIR YOUTH.

Grace and peace from God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. I beseech you, therefore, my most beloved sister and wife Wellemoet Claes, that you present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world. 1 Corinthians 1:3; Rom. 12:1,2. James says: “Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” James 4:4 For the Lord Jesus says: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” John 16:20–22. Therefore let us say with St. Paul: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? 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.” Rom. 8:35–37. “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches.” Rev. 3:5,6. Hence, I beseech you, my most beloved, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is;” “for the time past of your life may suffice you to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when you walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries.” “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to 461 man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you maybe able to bear it.” Eph. 5:15–17; 1 Peter 4:3; 1 Cor. 10:12,13.

“Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry” (1 Cor. 10:14), and “Know, that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.” 1 Peter 1:18–21. “Now, the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” 1 Tim. 1:5. “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” John 17:1–3. “For such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.” Hebrews 7:26–28.

Therefore I admonish you, my most beloved, seeing we have such “a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” Heb. 10:21,22. John says: “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 2:1,2. “And now . . . I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”236 Acts 20:32.