# G. Kleermaecker, With Sijntgen Van Rousselare And Maeyken Gosens, Put To Death For The Truth, At Antwerp, A. D. 1573.

1573 · Historical source

Source: Martyrs’ Mirror. Original heading: G. KLEERMAECKER, WITH SIJNTGEN VAN ROUSSELARE AND MAEYKEN GOSENS, PUT TO DEATH FOR THE TRUTH, AT ANTWERP, A. D. 1573.

Source heading; not independently verified

A letter from G. Kleermaecker, imprisoned at
Antwerp with Sijntgen van Rousselare, wife
of Jeronymus, where they laid down their
lives for the truth.

The abundant grace of God, the great love and
mercy of his Son, and the power, operation and illumination
of the Holy Ghost, this, my very dear and
beloved sister in the Lord, I wish you as a cordial
and affectionate greeting, whereby we, unworthy
ones, are born anew of God, to serve the Lord in
righteousness and holiness, to the praise of the Lord
and to the salvation of our souls. Hereunto fit,
strengthen and confirm us, the Lord, the Father of
all mercy, to whom alone be praise, glory, and
honor, forever and ever. Amen.

After this salutation, my very dear and beloved
sister in the Lord, I inform you, that I am, the
Lord be praised forever, still tolerably well according
to the flesh, and also as regards the mind; and
I trust by the grace of God to go with our true
Captain, Joshua to the promised land (which has
been promised us unworthy ones out of grace, and
shown us through faith) hoping and trusting by the
grace of God to pass unharmed over Jordan; yet I
would from the depth of my heart, that my mind
were more valiant for it.

Further, my very dear and beloved sister, I inform
you, that at the visit my heart was greatly rejoiced
by you, because I saw your great joy and
gladness in the Lord, your complete self-renunciation,
and the resignation of your heart and mind,
in the Lord, for which we cannot thank and praise
the Lord enough, that he has given you such a
treasure in earthen vessels, that you do not want to
forsake the Lord, for neither life nor death, nor
for any torment which the tyrants might inflict upon
you my very dear and beloved sister in the Lord.
The Lord, the God of all grace, strengthen and
confirm you unto the end, and fulfill all the good
pleasure of his goodness in you, and the work of
faith with power, that the name of our dear Lord
Jesus Christ maybe glorified in you, and that you
may fight the good fight of faith; and lay hold on
eternal life, whereunto we are called, if we hold the
beginning of the Christian life steadfast unto the
end. 2 Thess. 1:11,12; 1 Tim. 6:12; Heb, 3:14.
For, dear sister in the Lord, if we properly consider
the life of Christ, we find nothing but tribulation,
suffering and distress. He who was the Lord of
lords, for our sakes left his Father’s kingdom; he
came into the world, to call our guilt upon him, and
918
paid the debt with his bitter suffering and death on
the tree of the cross, leaving us in all things an example,
as the apostle says, that we should follow his
steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his
mouth: who when he was reviled, reviled not again;
when he suffered he threatened not; but committed
himself to him that judgeth righteously: who his
own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness;
by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye
were as sheep going astray; but are now returned
unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls,
and in another place the apostle says: Consider him
that endured such contradiction of sinners against
himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
Heb. 12:3. And thus also the prophet utters his
complaint for him saying: I am a worm, and no
man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they
shoot out the lip, they shake the head. Ps. 22:6,7.
In still another place Isaiah says. He hath no form
nor comeliness; and when we see him, there is no
beauty that we should desire him. He is despised
and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted
with grief: and we hid, as it were, our
faces from him. . . . He was oppressed and he
was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is
brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his
mouth. Is. 53:2,3,7. Besides this, my much beloved
sister in the Lord, consider Christ’s entire life
how he begun, lived, and ended it; you will find
nothing but suffering, humiliation, misery and contempt,
which he suffered for our sakes in humility,
so that the apostle says of the Lord, that in the days
of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears unto God who was
able to save him from death, and was heard because
he honored God. Heb. 5:7. Hence, my dear sister
in the Lord, this beginning of the Christian life
must abide with us unto the end, as said before, and
we shall then also be partakers of him, and with all
God’s children inherit his kingdom through grace,
for which reason he went hence to prepare us a
place there, even as he says: I go to your and my
Father, to prepare a place for you; and if I go, I
will come again, and receive you unto myself; that
where I am, there ye maybe also, John 20:17; 14:3.
Therefore, my dear sister in the Lord, though our
God does now hide his face from us for a little
while, yet will he gather us again with everlasting
kindness, as the prophet says; I will lead you into
mine house, and give you a place within my walls,
and a name better than of sons and of daughters;
yea, I will give you an everlasting name, that shall
not be cut off. Yea, he will lay our stones with fair
colors, and lay our foundations with sapphires, and
will make our windows of crystal and our gates of
carbuncles. Is. 54:7,8; 56:5; 54:11,12. Yea, there
is a city built, says John, of pure gold, where, my
very dear sister in the Lord, you shall see the King
in his beauty, whose head is as the finest gold, and
his locks are curled and black as a raven; his eyes
are as the eyes of doves; his cheeks are as growing
beds of spices of the apothecary; his hands are as
gold rings set with turquoises, his body is as pure
ivory. His legs are as pillars of marble set upon
sockets of gold; his mouth is sweet, and his word is
lovely. Rev. 21:18; Cant. 5:11–16. In short, we
shall find more there, than it is possible to tell us or
to describe.

See, my dear sister in the Lord, such is our
Friend and Bridegroom; hence rejoice, you betrothed
of the Lord, for he that has chosen you
from among many thousands is fairer than all the
children of men.

Therefore, my dear sister in the Lord, adorn
yourself with the fine linen of righteousness (Revelation
19:8) in honor of your Bridegroom until the
days of tribulation shall be at an end, and the Lord
shall turn again the captivity of Zion, and wipe
away all tears from your eyes, and make perfect our
joy, so that for our mourning and sighing we shall
sing as in the night of a glorious feast, and shall,
with the hundred and forty-four thousand virgins,
that were redeemed from the earth, stand before the
throne of God, having the name of our God written
in our foreheads, having harps in our hands, and
singing a new song. Rev. 7:4; 14:1–4.

Behold, dear sister, this our enemies shall see and
be confounded, who now say to us: “Where is
your God?” Our eyes shall then behold them
trodden down as mire in the streets, and be ashes
under the feet of the righteous. Mal. 4:3. Hence,
dear sister in the Lord, let us be sincere in love, and
obtain the victory in the Christian’s conflict; to him
that overcometh he will give to eat of the tree of
life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
Rev. 2:7. This grant us the only wise God, the
Father of grace and mercy, who alone has power
in heaven and on earth, that we, justified through
his grace, may become heirs of eternal life. Unto
him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we can ask or think, to him alone be praise,
glory and honor, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians
3:20,21.

Faithful is he, who also will do it, according to
his promise; for I am God, he says by the prophet
Malachi, and change not, namely, in his promises.
1 Thess. 5:24; Mal. 3:6.

Herewith, my very dear and beloved sister in the
Lord, I will commend you to the Lord, and to the
rich word of his grace. Adieu, adieu, if we should
see each other’s face no more in this world, yet I
hope that we shall see each other in eternity with
our God, where parting will be no more. Once
more, adieu, and take my simple letter in good
part, this I humbly pray: and if I have in anything
written too little or too much, I beg you to excuse
me for it. Herewith I cordially salute you and also
my wife cordially greets you with the peace of the
Lord; and Sanderijntgen, and another maiden from
Zealand, named Magdaleentgen, also greet you most,
cordially. I ask you very kindly, my dear sister, let
me have a letter from you, for this will be very welcome
to me and more agreeable than I can write
you. Farewell.

By me your weak brother and servant, to the utmost
of my ability.

G. Kleermaecker, v. s. b.

919





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