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Jan Amos Komenský: The last will and testament of the dying mother The Unity of Brethren[*]_
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by which (in the middle of its nation and in its specificity) treasures entrusted to her by The Lord God divides among its sons and daughters and heirs.
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.. [*] Published in Brno, 1935 by Dr. JOSEF STAN?K, who wrote the
original introduction and annotations.
Published by The Havlíčkovo dědictví in Brno, HUSOVA 5 printed by F.
Obzina in Vyškov in Moravia
All footnotes following are by the translator.
The Year of Our Lord 1650. [#]_
J. A. K.
.. [#] This translation is based on the electronic edition of the Czech
text available at
http://www.dkd.cz/dila/_Ksaft_umirajici_matky_Jednoty_Bratrske_9216.TXT,
and corrected by checking against the 1928 edition by J. V. Klíma
mentioned above.
Biblical quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard
Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News
Publishers.
Quotations marked NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version
Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of
America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Introduction
------------
The treatise of Jan Amos Komenský, “The Last Will and Testament
of the Dying Mother, The Unity of Brethren,” although not large,
yet deserves to be counted among his most important works. In the
first chapter of his book, “The World Revolution,” [#]_ President
Masaryk indicated the famous prophecy in Komenský’s Testament was
his guide in the foreign resistance.
The Testament was created after the Thirty Years War, which brought
a yoke of foreign rule over the Czech nation after the
Peace of Westphalia (1648) thwarted all hopes of return for our exiles.
Despite all the promises of the Swedish chancellor, Axel
Oxenstierna, and despite Komensky's pleading letter to the chancellor
before the peace was agreed, the Czechs were abandoned by the Swedes
and nothing happened to help the exiles. There was still a weak hope they
would take care for the exiles, when the warring sides talked about the
execution of the peace agreement in the beginning of the year 1650 in Nürnberg.
When even this hope was frustrated, Komenský
understood that the Unity was sentenced to die in foreign countries
without hope of returning home. Komenský became the bishop of the Unity
of Brethren in Leszno in 1648. Therefore, he writes in the name of his
Unity [#]_ a moving and heartfelt Testament in the beginning of the year
1650, where the Unity bids farewell to its believers and to the Czech
nation. It was also necessary to provide instruction to the members of the
unity on how to behave if the Unity was indeed dissolved. (The Unity had not
dissolved yet, because the council in Leszno that same year
(1650) decided to continue.)
The outline of the Testament, having 20 chapters in total, will come out
best from the following table of contents:
I. People are fleeting: they linger on this earth for some time and then
leave. Similarly, all kingdoms, nations, languages, religions and
unities.
II. The Unity of Brethren will perish for its sins. Therefore, she wants to
make this last will and testament following the example of prudent
people.
III. The Unity calls upon her sons, so they stand up by her death bed.
IV. (This chapter and the fifth one indicate the outline of The
Testament, but that is interrupted by the grand finale and
conclusion in chapters 19 and 20, where The Unity turns to the
Czech nation.) She divides them into four groups and
wants to talk each of these individually; then she plans to
speak to other churches as well. She does not have earthly
estates, because if she had any they were taken away from her by
her enemies. However, she has spiritual riches and she wants to
divide these among her sons and friends.
V. Some sons of The Unity, the unfaithful ones, broke faith and left
her. Others, the timid ones, joined enemies of The
Unity, but they long for her in their hearts. Third, the faithful
ones, unshakably stick to the Unity in her persecutions; but some
succumb to suffering and they are near to death, some are
perhaps protected for the future.
VI. First the Unity turns to those who remained faithful to her and
consoles them with many statements from the New and Old
Testament, that they will achieve the kingdom of heaven after their
deaths. They should not grieve the loss of their earthly homeland.
VII. The timid ones, who did not stand the test, should cry over
themselves as St. Peter did when he betrayed Christ, and they
should return to the Unity of Brethren.
VIII. To other remains of her people (i.e., the unfaithful ones?) the
Unity bequests tears and penitence so they may reform.
IX. The Unity commands her children to weep for priests who sinned by
allowing worldly futility, splendor, and vice into the Unity.
X. The Unity commands penitence and prayers, fasting and weeping to all
its children, old and young, and calls priests to follow examples
recorded in the Old Testament. They have not done such penitence yet.
If at least they turn now to God with their whole hearts, perhaps
deliverance will come for them.
XI. The Unity remembers the virtues which decorated all her members: it was
love of God, simplicity and honesty, and hatred towards worldly vanity.
In place of virtue, discord, selfishness, pride,
miserliness, laziness and begging brought disgrace to the whole
nation. The Unity reminds that we do not live for the
earthbound life, but for life eternal.
XII. The Unity thanks the Polish Unity for accepting her children,
expelled as they are from their homeland. At the same time, she asks
her always to remember her origin from the Unity of the Czech Brethren.
She criticizes the Polish Unity for a decline in discipline and
particularly the custom of sending youth to study in schools overseas,
where they loose their good moral lifestyle. The Polish Unity
should take care to remedy this issue.
XIII. If the Unity dissolves, all its preachers could serve in any
Evangelical [#]_ church; the faithful should join an evangelical church as
well.
XIV. The Unity then turns to other Christian unities, first of all
to the Roman Unity from which all others arose. She was not a true
mother to them, but like a stepmother. She should repent and reform;
if she will not, she will perish.
XV. The Unity joyfully greets other evangelical unities, which are true
brides of Christ. Christ sent as a bridegroom John Hus to the Unity
of Brethren, Martin Luther to the German unity, and Jean Calvin to
the Swiss Unity.
XVI. The German Unity (i.e., the Lutheran Unity) was the first sister of
the Unity of Brethren. The latter leaves the former more order and
discipline and better understanding of the article on the
justification by faith. She should finish Luther’s work and not
settle on mere faith, but should do good deeds as well.
XVII. The Swiss Unity is bequested by the Unity of Brethren more
genuineness and less meditation about faith, as this leads to
the endless creation of religious sects.
XVIII. The Unity leaves to all Christian Unities the longing for unification,
which has to start with agreement on substantial matters.
XIX. This chapter, where The Unity turns to the Czech nation, whom it
leaves all spiritual treasures, is the most important of the
whole Testament. Komenský pronounces in the introductory paragraphs
a memorable prophecy about the renewal of Czech independence
(Even I do believe to God, that after the end of the gales of anger
… the government of your own matters returns to you, O the Czech
nation!) The Unity leaves to her beloved nation:
1. Love of the pure Truth of God
2. The Kralice translation of the Holy Bible
3. Love of the church discipline and orders
4. Effort to unify all Czech evangelical Unities
5. Love of the mother tongue
6. Better ways to educate youth.
XX. In the end The Unity bids farewell to the Czech nation and blesses
Him with the words of Moses. It wishes Him strength, plenty of men,
happiness in the fight and in work. His enemies should be always
humiliated!
Writing his Testament, Komenský used the form of a Last Will and
Testament: The Unity, while dying, calls all her children to herself to
make a Last Will about her spiritual property. Formally, the example
for Komenský was the Old Testament Apocrypha “Testaments of the Twelve
Patriarchs” (Jacob’s sons) that was translated into Czech in
the 14th century. However, the church opinion of Komenský is generously
extended in the 19th chapter of The Testament, where The Unity, or
perhaps Komenský himself, calls on the whole Czech nation. Moved to
the depths of his soul, he escalates with the memorable prophecy of our
national renewal “after the end of the gales”. In the 20th chapter the
form of the blessing joins the form of prophecy: The Unity bids farewell
to the nation and blesses him with the words of Moses' blessing from the
Old Testament, because Komenský saw even the Czech nation as the chosen
people and in the story of our exiles he saw the story of the Jews dispersed
to all corners of the world.
The Testament is in accordance with the nature of the matter written in
a serious style, which quite often acquires an excited, even dramatic
character. Komenský here quite often quotes the Old and New Testament,
although not so often as in his book “The Mournful.” In the same manner as
in the Labyrinth, in the Testament Komenský uses quite often words
contracted from German.
The original manuscript of the Testament has not been preserved.
However, we have four transcriptions from the 18th century. The first
print of the Testament, the Berlin one, is from 1757. The work was
printed in Prague only in 1848. Important editions are: an edition by the
bibliophiles club from 1909, by František Táborský and Em. Smetánka with
the illustrations by Adolf Kašpar; an edition by the Czech Mission Unity
from 1912 (faithful copy of the Berlin edition); Kobr’s edition from
1917 made by J. V. Novák; an edition by the Komenský society in Prague from
1918 by Jan Herben and with illustrations by František Bílek; a critical
edition by St. Souček in the Reichl’s Block from 1927 (which is the
foundation of our edition); then the edition by J. V. Klíma from 1928 in
Prague, Rudolf Schams from 1930 in the Laichter’s collection Lights.
There are two German translations: from 1866 and the second one by Dora
Peřinová from 1907. There is a Dutch translation by the Amsterdam doctor R. A.
B Oosterhuis from 1928.
.. [#] Published in English as The Making of a State (1927).
.. [#] The old Unity of Brethren and thus Komenský used intentionally
term “a Unity” (“jednota”), where the current term would be
probably “a denomination” or “a church”. They wanted to emphasize
their persuasion that there is only one Church of Christ, comprised
of all Christians, and all communities which comprise it are just
parts of this large one Church.
.. [#] “Evangelical” was for Komenský more or less the same as what we
would call “protestant” today.
I.
--
In the name of God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
My dear sons and everybody who hears my voice, listen to me!
It is proclaimed in God’s Scriptures that one era passes and
another is coming, while the earth stays forever [#]_, so it has been
fulfilled amongst us all: in those who were here before us, it is being fulfilled
in us who are alive now, and it will be fulfilled amongst those who are
coming after us. That is, that by coming to the world from the place
where the omnipotent Lord lead us from, from the place of the eternal
silence, and after staying here for a while, however long He does measure us
to live, and we will go back to where he will lead us (O, let him lead us!)
to the place of His stay. As much this is true for each person
individually, the same is true for every human society - in households,
cities, kingdoms and unities. Everywhere one passes away and another
comes; you can see what’s even now going on under the heavens; some
kingdoms are passing away and change together with their nations,
languages, rights, and religions. Even congregations [#]_ of The Unity:
it happens certainly because the new era is coming; it happens certainly
because God wants to renew the face of his land [#]_.
.. [#] Ecclesiastes 1:4
.. [#] literally “churches”
.. [#] Psalm 104:30
II.
---
I see in the midst of all these changes my own change, my dying and
passing away, and I have been put under God’s discipline when I have
been pushed away into the middle of strangers. I have been abandoned
by my neighbors (who build peace for themselves and forgot about me
[#]_). If The Lord affirms what people do, I see that while I served
to the will of the God in my age, now I am going to fall asleep [#]_. So
I will do what the cautious, according to the wisdom of the World, do: if
they have anything to bequeath, they establish their heirs and they
divide among them the blessings of God, so that these will not be lost or
become cause for division, that they will not leave fights behind.
This is God’s order given to Hezekiah: “Set your
house in order, for you shall die and not live.” [#]_, and whoever gets
a house to steward from God should not leave the world without doing a
Last Will and Testament.
.. [#] Here she talks about the Peace of Westphalia (1648).
.. [#] Acts 13:36
.. [#] Isaiah 38:1
III.
----
Go, my children, because I am a widow and forsaken. I brought you up
with gladness; but with mourning and sorrow I have lost you, because you
have sinned before the Lord God and have done what is evil in my sight.
But now what can I do for you? For I am a widow and forsaken. Go, my
children, and ask for mercy from the Lord. [#]_
.. [#] 2.Esdras 2:2b-4 NRSV
IV.
---
I will divide you into four groups, and will speak to each group
individually about what is needed. I will turn my speech to other
unities, my sisters, older and younger [#]_, with whom and amongst whom
I was cared for by The Lord. Now when he calls me to himself before
all of you, I divide amongst you what The Lord gave me to
administer from His Mercy. So, although my external likeness was such
that I could say with the Apostle [#]_: “I have no silver or gold”
[#]_, because I did not have on Earth a place to lay my head, in the same
manner as my Lord; whatever I had, from these smaller earthly things,
homes and congregations, fields and vineyards, they were taken from me
(when I was forced into exile) in the same manner as they robbed my Lord
of his gown and divided it among themselves when they have nailed him to
the cross; but I can boast in the Christ Jesus in God’s matters,
because he gave me spiritual riches in order that His Word could stay with
me. Therefore, I will bequest as I see fit those treasures given into my care,
to give each of you sons and my friends what you need.
.. [#] “Younger sisters” means the Lutheran and Calvin unities, the “older sister” is the Utraquist unity.
.. [#] Meaning St. Peter.
.. [#] Acts 3:6
V.
--
You, my sons, whom I gave birth and brought up, I do not see each of
you as the same; therefore I cannot speak to each of you in the same words,
but in different manners. Because some of you betrayed me and The Father
of Spirits, to whom I gave you birth, because you did not stay with me in my
trials, but left me. Others of you persisted, and some
of you may even persist now, but in a half-hearted manner. You
flatter my enemies and warm yourself at their fires, yet you still long
for me, your mother, and desire the Lord to liberate me from the siege of my
enemies so that you may return to my bosom. Others have more
courageous spirits and followed me, even as I was falling down under the cross,
and have not hesitated to share my sufferings, even drinking with me the
chalice of bitterness, which is poured for me by the Lord, who leads us from
the bitterness of the current age to the sweetness of the world to come. But
still, I see some of you either because of your age or because of
destitution languishing and dying; about others I still have hope that the
Lord will care for them until the better time arrives.
VI.
---
I want to delight you who are still faithful and remain in
that faithfulness, those arriving at the result of their faith, with the
delight which delighted our most faithful Lord, with these holy
words: “You are those who have stayed with me in my trials, and I assign
to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and
drink at my table in my kingdom.” [#]_ Accept this delight, O my sons,
and do not grieve any more for the loss of your earthly fatherland or
the tabernacles of your home or the tabernacles of the Lord here on the Earth;
we are led to more glorious things by the One who said: “Tell my
people that I will give them the kingdom of [eternal] Jerusalem, which
I was going to give to Israel. Moreover, I will take back to myself
their glory, and will give to these others the everlasting habitations,
which I had prepared for Israel. The tree of life shall give them
fragrant perfume [#]_, and they shall neither toil nor become weary.”
[#]_ Be ready for the rewards of the Kingdom, because perpetual light
will shine on you forevermore. Flee from the shadow of this age,
receive the joy of your glory [#]_ knowing that you shall be attached
after your release from here to the great crowd before the throne and
before the face of the Lamb, dressed in white and having palm branches
of Victory; about those the heavenly voice says: “These are the ones
coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the
throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple …” etc. [#]_
.. [#] Luke 22:28-30
.. [#] Tree of life symbolizes the eternal life, whereas fragrant
perfume is a symbol of the earthly life.
.. [#] 2. Esdras 2:10b-13 NRSV
.. [#] ibid v. 35-36 NRSV
.. [#] Revelation 7:9, 14, 15
VII.
----
You have disposed of delight more precious than the whole world (because
what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his
life, what shall a man give in return for his life [#]_), you fearful
ones. When you could not stand your test, you fell; cry and groan over
yourself! Is it right to keep faith for a time and leave it at the
time of temptation, and show yourself to be of those who fell on the
rock, not having roots? [#]_ Ah, not many of you declared with Peter:
“Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.” [#]_ and
what remained from these declarations? All of you fled away, when the gale hit the Lord and His
gospel [#]_. Consider the generations of old and see: has anyone trusted
in the Lord and been disappointed? Or has anyone persevered in the fear
of the Lord and been forsaken? Or has anyone called upon him and been
neglected? Woe to timid hearts and to slack hands, and to the sinner who
walks a double path! Woe to the fainthearted who have no trust!
Therefore, they will have no shelter. Woe to you who have lost your
nerve! What will you do when the Lord’s reckoning comes? [#]_
Here is advice: Do, what Peter did after his fall: recall who you are,
leave the bishop’s palaces [#]_ and flee somewhere, to a corner, where other
disciples are sheltered. Cry and howl more than the others, so long as the
rooster of God still crows and as long as the Lord still tied is
standing in front of his false judges looking at you: when did you leave? Do
you want to wait until your conscience lashes at you as Judas' one
did? It will be too late. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden
your hearts, but soften them: humble yourself, turn. And while you are on
the path, walk on the path of the Truth! Such are Peter’s footprints for
returning to the flock, which you left. I bequest [these footprints] to you,
O my wandering sons!
.. [#] Matthew 16:26
.. [#] L 8:13
.. [#] Luke 22:33
.. [#] Gale means here the defeat of protestants in the Battle of White
Mountains (1620) and following recatholization of the Czech lands.
.. [#] Sirach 2:10,12-14 NRSV
.. [#] Bishop’s palaces — Peter left the seat of the highest Jewish
priest, where Peter denied Christ, here the palace means the Roman
unity.
VIII.
-----
What should I bequest to the other remnants of the Unity in whatever
number you still remain? Weeping, I bequest to you penitence and reform in
front of the face of the almighty Lord.
IX.
---
I command you cry, like the command which the Lord God gave to the whole
family of Israel when he burnt His priests with fire in His tabernacle,
because they sacrificed unauthorized fire before the Lord God; where the
Lord God did not let the remaining priests cry, but He let the people
cry [#]_. Even my first-born sinned, guardians [#]_ of my tabernacle,
they brought or allowed foreign fire into the tabernacle of the
Unity: the fire of human wisdom, the fire of bodily vanities, the fire of pride,
splendor, jewels, debauchery, your own will, miserliness,
indifference, etc. See, they died and are dying in front of you for
their sins; but you cry because this wound is injuring you and your
descendants.
.. [#] see Lev 10:1-6
.. [#] Priests of the Brethren Unity.
X.
--
I order you repent and pray, such as God ordered in the
time of his great wrath: so that everyone will turn to the LORD God with
their whole hearts, and with fasting and crying even with howling.
Tearing their hearts, not only their robes; the solemn assembly is
proclaimed, so that both elders and youth are assembled, even the ones
feeding on breasts; let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her
chamber; let the priests, servants of the LORD God, cry etc. [#]_; let
repentance be done, as it was done in times of Ahasuerus in the city of
Susa, when they were afraid of extermination, when they were not eating
or drinking day and night for three days [#]_, or such as the repentance done by
all citizens of Nineveh, from the king to the last shepherd, from humans
to animals, from elders to babies, doing nothing other than crying to
heaven with fasting and weeping [#]_, and again Jews had sought the
merciful Lord with weeping and fasting and lying prostrate for three
days without ceasing [#]_.
O sons, you never did such repentance and you never had such an
amount of fervor, but you behaved like many Judeans in their exile, that
even in the places where you were dispersed by the Lord, you still
sinned and defiled His Holy Name in front of those for whom you should
sanctify him. The Israelites, just after being twice defeated, sat down in
front of the LORD God and cried, fasted, and offered burnt offerings
and peace offerings [#]_. You were not defeated twice, but more than
twenty times during those thirty years [#]_, but still you fell into the
pit, from which you could not and cannot get out, you still have not
figured out how to manifest your repentance. And therefore at least now
return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow
to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and relenting of evil. Who knows
whether He will not turn and relent [#]_, so that there will be
liberation, as the LORD God said, in the remnant who will be called by the
LORD God [#]_.
.. [#] Joel 2:12-17
.. [#] Ester 4:16
.. [#] Jonah 3:5-8
.. [#] 2.Maccabees 13:12
.. [#] Judges 20:26
.. [#] That is, during the thirty years war.
.. [#] Joel 2:12-14
.. [#] ibid v. 32
XI.
---
I bequest you even this: if you want to enjoy the mercy of the Lord, you
and your descendants will put real effort into your correction and
return to your first abandoned love. I recall now with tears that which
I lost, how the Lord honored me above other unities and what
jewels decorated my sons and daughters.
Because of fervent love for God and His honor, hatred of the world and its
futility, meekness shared by all children and honesty towards yourself
left you; on the other hand unfaithfulness, suspicion, differences and
conflicts, seeking your own things, pride over and against yourself, and
discord sneaked in and now stands between you forever. In this same manner in which you started
at home, you have not stopped behaving in exile. Your
thinking has stretched even more in exile. Some of you have fallen in
places where you are honored, and you have become full of pride and boasting;
some have become stingy, worse than in your homeland, and forgot why you left it,
that is for the Word of God. Others have fallen into disgusting malady. You
gave yourselves into vanity, idleness, laziness, even into begging, which
leads to the ugliness and defames not only the fate of the other exiles, but
also of themselves, and what is even worse, of the whole nation. Some of you
have already unhitched yourself from the yoke of discipline, settling in
places where you can do whatever you feel is right.
Oh, my children, is this how you remember what you were called for and
what path you were lead to? We are not here for this life and its
things, we are just pilgrims and we have just the ordinary things
pilgrims have; our home is in the heavens, and so we should be concerned
only with heavenly matters. Just Lebanon [#]_ is here, Succoth and
Zarethan [#]_, where the Heavenly Salomon [#]_ collects and prepares for
His Eternal Temple the living wood and stones that he logs, cuts, chops,
chisels, and planes - them and us. Its metals he dissolves and casts
into proper vessels on this side of Jordan, in the country of clay
earth, where we roll in mud; but this Eternal Salomon leads us to the
Upper Jerusalem, where, if we let him form us well, everything will fit.
.. [#] Lebanon - the mountain range, from which Salomon took the wood
for the building of The Temple.
.. [#] Succoth and Zarethan - two cities near Jordan, where Salomon cast
the vessels for his Temple (1.Ki 7:46).
.. [#] i.e., God himself.
XII.
----
Especially you, my beloved daughter, The Polish Unity, whom the Lord God
gave me, born in the middle of my life when I was strong, so that
(as I can see it now) when grown up you could be a nurse of my other
children: you did well to accept them in your lap when they had to leave
their country. You brought them up. God give you reward for it! [May God]
not allow you loneliness and protect you from being
abandoned! I ask you, however, to remember from which trunk you came, so
that you take care to be a good grape in a well-planted vineyard, and do not
change into a wild grape [#]_. Christ told us about those who fell
apart: “They claim to be Jews, but they are not, they are mistaken.”
[#]_. Take care therefore so that it is not said about you “They
claim to be the seed of the Czech brethren, but they are not.”
This is the time, my beloved daughter, to prevent such
disappointments; because such disappointments truly happen, when
not a few of your sons are wild in their flesh, leaving the yoke
of the discipline and enjoy the freedom of the flesh, those
temporary comforts and plentiful rents and collecting of money,
so that for many the office of the shepherd (pastor) turned into
mere tenancy, with you as it is elsewhere; you have not learned
how to keep the church in order [#]_ against God’s prohibitions
and against the examples of your fathers following the examples
of others; even when the young ones live with the old ones, sons
stay with their fathers, you still want their salary and you take
it. [#]_ And what about elders? It is clearly obvious, that the
spirit of my fathers left you, my sons; you have lost the keys of
art, which Lascius wrote about [#]_, that your fathers were
special masters of maintaining order, discipline, holiness and
love towards one another, without compulsion and without the help
of the world's arm. But you, O my descendant (being from the
Polish, as well as Czech and Moravian nation), have become so
that you cannot keep in order neither yourself, nor your priests,
nor the people, not even the younger ones; whom, so that you do
not have to labor with them, you sent (and you still do so) to
foreign schools, that they may purify themselves, but they bring
back only the wildness, foreign customs, awful styles of clothes,
wiseacres in their brains, and everything in style other than
what the Christ’s and our ancestors’ simplicity sought; they do
what they do, so that everything lost the original style and not
much is recognizable. Therefore, even people and listeners and
patrons are mostly void and cold, and mostly disassociated by the
winds of many temptations from their roots, uprooting yourself,
so that everything with you slowly gets tired and is in danger of
falling. Therefore, recall yourself, my sons, before you will be
also uprooted by the Lord, and by true correction, repair to
everything good to prevent His anger, so that he will not move
even your lampstands from their places!
.. [#] Revelation 3:9 translated from Czech
.. [#] Isaiah 5
.. [#] literally “you have learned neither to close nor to open God’s
house freely”
.. [#] literally “even the young stay with older ones, sons stay with
their fathers, you want your salary and take it.”
.. [#] Lasicius - the Polish noble Jan Lasicki (1534-1605) wrote
a celebratory work about the Unity of Brethren.
XIII.
-----
If he moves and lets you vanish (the One who is starting judgment in the
household of God, demolishes what he does not like, and concludes the
demolition, so that he may start afresh on new foundations), so that all
my order, discipline, apostolic succession and all religious service
terminates, what will you do, my last remainders, being priests or lay
persons? I give you this advice, sons!
If any preachers remain, who will have nobody to preach to or serve at
home, serve the Christ where you can, in any Evangelical church which
would ask your service; just remember, that you should take care for your
simplicity, which I bore you in and which I have led you in, walking on
the middle road, don’t flatter one or another, and discourage any newly
created division. But rather encourage love, concord, and common good in
the Church; develop in people only a faith in Christ, pure and
religious, passionate and hopeful of the sweet future age, so that you may be
witnesses of where you came from.
You then, orphaned listeners, if it comes that you are not able
to attend pure religious services built on the orders of the
Unity unviolated, take the advice that you care for those who still walk in
our example [#]_, meaning those who will not
teach you to make on Earth masters, fathers, leaders, but who lead you to
the only one who is master, father, and leader in the heavens [#]_; join
the unity where you will see the truth of the Christ's gospel, pray for
the peace [of this unity] and take care for its good building, also by example
shine to others, also by true prayers, so that at least on me and
you, my sons, the Almighty wrath will stop, which is justly imposed on the
Christianity so fallen into many heresies and divisions [#]_!
.. [#] Phil. 3:17
.. [#] Matt 23:8
.. [#] 3. Maccabees 7:38, which is probably an incorrect quotation, 3.
Maccabees 7 has only 23 verses.
XIV.
----
I cannot forget you, my beloved sisters, evangelical unities, but
even you, our mother, from which we came from, the unity of Rome! You
were our mother, but you turned into a stepmother, or even a female bison
[#]_, sucking the blood of your children. I wish that you at least in
your old age would turn to repentance and leave the Babylon of your
hideousness. What I bequest to you, if it is of any use, is my example,
paying honor to God who remembered us even in my vices.
Following the light of His word I left, through His mercy, the haze of
your idolatry.
If you do not want, I will not bequest you anything, only the worm of
a bad conscience within; from the outside I declare as my witness the blood of my
sons and the other witness of Jesus Christ, whom you killed between the
sanctuary and the altar. You make yourself to be the spiritual
Jerusalem, and you are that, but Jerusalem it was in the times of the
prophets, Christ and the apostles, to whom the Lord spoke as a witness,
that I bequest as your inheritance: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city
that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often
would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood
under her wings, and you would not! See, your house is left to you
desolate.” (Matt. 23:37). Now you have your judgment, Jerusalem of the
New Testament; wait for its enforcement. To your sons I bequest the
right, which they were given by God, to take care of the glory of
the Eternal Father (to whom they were born to by you; Ezech. 23:37), to
raise the resistance against you, their mother, proving that you are not
his wife, but wash your harlotry from your face (Hoseah 2:2). If
you do not even then correct yourself and you will not please your sons
by returning to their Father, I bequest to the kings of the Earth, who
until now have carried you on their backs, God’s zeal, by which they
find you ugly and burn you as a dirt with fire (Rev. 17:16).
.. [#] female bison — it was said about the Lithuanian bison that
it deals badly with its offspring if they are touched by a human.
XV.
---
I speak to you also, my beloved sisters, who lead the uprising according
to the will of God (Hosea 2:2) against our mother, and who (against the
will of our unfaithful mother) betrothed yourself to the Eternal
Bridegroom in faith, as I did as well, so that we may know the LORD God
(Hosea 2:20). Rejoice with me, that we obtain the mercy of Christ not
only to trust in Him, but also to suffer for Him (Phil. 1:29)! Grace,
grace, grace happened to us that the Eternal Bridegroom through his best
man invited us and betrothed us to be his bride.
To me the faithful friend of the bridegroom (John 3:29) was sent, Master
John Hus, whose testimony I accepted even more gladly, because he sealed
it with his martyrdom.
To you, the German Unity, was sent the doctor Martin Luther, in the
spirit and power of Elijah (L 1:17), and you did well to not reject
his burning and shining candle, but you have celebrated in his given
light (J 5:35).
And to you, the Swiss Unity, was sent John Calvin, to betroth you and
marry you as a pure virgin to that one man, Christ (2Cor 11:2); and you did
well that when hearing the voice of the turtledove, you got up and
prepared yourself and your fig tree ripened its figs and the wines were
in blossom and gave forth fragrance. (Song 2:12f)
Let us greatly rejoice in the Lord; let us exult in our God, for he has
clothed us with the garments of salvation; he has covered us with the
robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself as a bride adorning
herself with her jewels. (Izai. 61, 10)! However, I, your departing
sister have something to tell you, my beloved sisters, listen to me!
XVI.
----
You, the German Unity, were my most beloved sister, who when I was alone
the Lord brought you to life for my pleasure, and who I loved from all
my heart, although
your love cooled because of my simplicity. What I hold as my most
precious jewel given to me by the Lord I have not forgotten to
give you from the beginning, hoping to share with you my blessing; and
I still wish to benefit you even while dying, and I wish to bequest to you
what will help you most: more order than you have, and more orderly
discipline and better wisdom concerning the article of faith on
justification, without so much shameful misuse of it, which I can see
happening with your sons.
It was a good beginning by the one whom God gave you to lead you out of
your faint; however those who came to his place are not fighting well.
His work for almost all his life was to destroy Babylon; it could not be
otherwise (because no work of human construction could endure in a place
where the city of the Most High was to be revealed; 2. Esdras 10:54
NRSV) However, when Zion should have been built and the Lord called Him from
his work to rest, his helpers, who should have built, let it be, and kept
only what he did, and whatever he did, they decided to live in the
ruins. Therefore, you don’t have much more than what he did not destroy
from Papism, and what he thought could stay; those are your palaces,
those are your triumphs. What others considered and consider to be
destroyed yet, you don’t want to finish, you don’t want to even hear
about it, and even less you care about building the new beautiful
order of the whole Church and founding it on that foundation of unity,
and building for it fortifications of order and raising up gates and
attaching to them doors and bars and locks with the keys of Christ, but
having started with the Spirit, you are ending with the flesh, as those
formerly enthusiastic Galatians (chapter 3:3), but in another direction.
They started their Christianity with faith, but wished to end with the acts
of the Law; you started with the living faith, but finish with the dead one, the
one without any deeds.
Oh my friends, I am being disciplined by the God Almighty to teach you (Job
27:11) and I wish that you would understand that knowledge of Christ
without the following of Christ and having delight in the gospel without
following the law of love which aims towards the gospel is nothing, just
misuse of the Gospel and certain (although opposing that first one
by the Papacy) temptation and deceit.
XVII.
-----
To you then, the Swiss Unity, who was added to me as a lover of order
and discipline, what should I bequest? Intent to be constant, growing in
all good according to the orders of the Christ, so that the justified
one justifies himself even more, and the saintly sanctify himself even more
(Rev 22:11; translated according to the Comenius text), and the promise that
those who have more will be given more, and they will have an abundance (Matt
13:12).
If then, my beloved sister, you are getting gifts and
mercies from God, let even me add to you something more: I wish that you,
thinking to have something precious, had it truly, but not being misled
by your thoughts were not feeding on shells, but broke into the
kernel. I ask for you first of all more diligent acts of unanimity in
taking care for the religion and the acts of guarding the discipline
supporting it, so that it would be not only surface but the thing
itself. Concerning theology, I wish you more simplicity, less
contemplation, more careful talk about God and His deeper secrets
than some of your sons did, which lead to the pitiful tearing of
yourself, gathered against you and against each other: Anabaptists,
Socinians [#]_, Arminians [#]_, and other bugs coming out of you
(especially now in England, when the dread of the worldly power
discontinued [#]_; it is clear how your sons, who are always seeking new
things and who are unable to agree on anything, made sad and outrageous
theater of the Church of God, and a bad name for you among all nations).
Oh my beloved sister, let God gives something to all your sons, so that
we can learn to pray together with David: “Simplicity and honesty let
them guard me.” (Psalm 25:21)!
.. [#] Socinians: a sect, founded by an Italian Faustus Sozzini in the
16th century in Poland, which rejected faith in the Holy Trinity.
.. [#] Arminians: a Calvinist sect, founded by Jacobus Arminius in the
16th century in the Netherlands, which rejected the teaching of
predestination.
.. [#] The allusion to the end of the Monarchy and beginning of the
English republic in 1649.
XVIII.
------
To all Christian unities I bequest a yearning for the unity of thoughts
and reconciliation and unity in faith and love leading to the Unity of
spirit. Oh if only that spirit, whom I got in the beginning from the
Father of all spirits [#]_, could come to all of you, so that you would
long with all your heart, as much as I was longing, for the true unity
in Christendom with all those confessing the name of Christ in truth!
Oh, if only God would give you to find the foundations of all things
essential, things of service, and accidental, as he did to me, so that
all of you would know what is necessary to enthuse about and what not,
what to be enthusiastic about more or less, knowing, when to avoid the
enthusiasm which is without wisdom and which does not bring building and
improvement, but which brings destruction to the Church, where the
enraged enthusiasm is necessary, where to venture to fight in rage for
the Glory of God (all the way to sacrificing your lives)! Oh, if only
all of you longed for true participation in the Mercy of God, for true
participation in the merits of the Christ, for true participation in the
sweet inner gifts of the Holy Spirit, which you can achieve through the
true faith, true love and true hope in God, which is the foundation of
Christianity! These you can then achieve by the services ordained by
God for service to us: Word, Keys, and Sacraments, whose power is
most certainly proved by the inner power of the Spirit, when they are
being used simply and honestly, humbly and in faith as if given by God,
without the human-invented beauty of rites. Oh, if only you would
understand what Our Lord said: “The Kingdom of God is not coming in
things that can be observed, but it is among you.” (Luke 17:20,21 NRSV);
also “there is need of only one thing” (Luke 10:42 NRSV), that is being
wholly invested into the one (that is the good part, chosen by Maria
[#]_, sitting silently at the Lord’s feet and letting go all anxious
activity), so that you would hit at least sometimes something which
would make happy the heart of Our Compassionate One, who prayed for all
of us to the Father, saying: “that they may all be one, just as you,
Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us” (John
17:21 NRSV), so that all of you claim allegiance to the house of the
Church were only one house of God, well ordered and joined together, and
only in that house the one family of God, under the unanimous order of God
in concord, loving and helping one another, standing as one body, although
consisting of many members, joined and knit together by every ligament
with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promoting
the body’s growth in building itself up in love (Eph 4:16 NRSV), so that
one day the Christian Church and angels can sing: “how good and pleasant
it is when brothers dwell in unity!” (Psalm 133:1).
.. [#] i.e. God
.. [#] Maria listened to the word of Christ, sitting at his feet, while
her sister, cautious Marta, eagerly served to the Lord (see
gospels).
XIX.
----
I cannot forget as well you, Czech and Moravian nation, my beloved
country, even now when I have finished my farewell; to you in the
first place I leave all my treasures, which I have been entrusted by the Lord.
I make you the first beneficiary and heir, following the example of
some rich burghers of Rome and kings living on their borders, who made
their heir the Roman commonwealth, ruling to the end of the Earth,
making testaments in its benefit. Even I do believe God, that after the
end of all gales of anger (introduced on our heads for our sins) the
rule of your things will return back to your hands, O Czech nation! And
for this hope I make you heir of all I have inherited from my ancestors
and preserved during the hard and difficult times, and even what I have
acquired through the work of my sons and God’s blessing. All this
I bequest to you and give you, namely:
First of all, love for the pure truth of God, which the Lord started to
show us before other nations through the ministry of Master Hus, the ministry he
together with his helper [#]_ and other faithful Czechs sealed by
his blood, and from which we were lead astray by the smarts of the
Antichrist, first during the Council of Basel, and now [#]_ through the
brutal power of war, and which I still strive to hold together with my sons
who wish to go after the light. That is your inheritance, given to you
before other nations, O my beloved country, take over again your right
as your own, when this grace will be given and the Lord, Your
Compassionate one, will make way for his truth.
Second, commend you to the passionate longing for always fuller and
clearer understanding of God’s truth, so that knowing the LORD, you
will always try to get to know him more (Hos 6:3). And because the Lord
ordered us to search the Scriptures (John 5:39 [#]_) I bequest to you
the inheritance the book of God, The Holy Bible, my sons, from the
original languages (which God ordered them to be written in) into the
Czech language translated with great diligence (several learned men
spent fifteen years on this work) [#]_, and the Lord God so blessed this
effort so much, that only few nations can listen to the holy prophets
and apostles speak in their own language. Accept it as your own jewel,
my beloved country, and use it for God’s glory and your own good
education; and although our enemies burned copies of this book, wherever
they could find it, by the mercy of the same God, who ordered Jeremiah to
write again books once cut and burnt by the godless Jehoiakim [#]_ (Jer.
36) as well as soon afterwards He woke up the religious Ptolemaios [#]_
to translate it into the Greek language and make it known to other
nations, even to you this book of God will be preserved; believe and do
not doubt!
Third, I command you to especially love the Church orders and
loving discipline (which should and must exist among the children of
God), so that the Christ will have not only the pulpit as a prophet, or an
altar as a priest and bishop, but the throne and staff to make judgments
over the disobedient. That discipline which I got from the Lord I have
never hidden, it was given in the light; use it, my beloved country, for
your benefit, either according to my style, or whatever best
can be found in the Holy Scriptures and in the example of the first
apostolic Church, because it is the most safe to build on old
foundations, whenever the temple of God is being restored (Ezra 3:3)!
Fourth, I give you passion for the service of the Lord God.
Serve him in unity, as I have longed for always,
evidenced by the memories of my ancestors [#]_ as well as the history
written by Jan Lascius about my matters. I could use this longing much,
except that I joined the common confession of the nation in 1575
and the common consistory in 1610. However, let be given by God for
his mercy (the wish I am sealing either with my life or my death, as the
Lord will call me), that the third link be the most perfect, of all my
remains with other remains of faithful Czechs, so that the wood of Judea
and the wood of Ephraim [#]_ be the only wood in the hand of God, when
the Lord Almighty collects our scattered bones again, covers them with flesh
and skin, and fills us with the spirit of Life. For Him, nothing is
impossible!
Fifth, I give to you and your sons diligence in cultivation,
cleaning and building up of the adored and beloved language of our fathers.
My sons were always watchful and known for this in times past. So
much so, that the wise told us there was no better Czech language than the
one among the Brethren and in their books. But some are now even more
diligent, after being expelled from their country, to create useful
books written with even sharper pens for helping our sons with even more
simple introductions to various noble graces and beauty in all matters of
speech, to wisdom and eloquence, for a better-chosen replacement of
the current disaster in times to come when the Lord will grant refreshing. So
whatever books you find, old or new, accept it from my sons, have them as
your own for the best use you can see!
Sixth, I bequest to you better youth, more diligent, better in exercise,
than youth used to be. It was my mistake to entrust my youth to an alien, who
inflamed my sons and ruined them. If it were God's pleasure to return me back to
better times, I would take care to do better in this. However, I have
lost all hope for myself, so I ask you, my beloved country, I beseech
you to correct this yourself. Some of my sons worked on this [#]_ and
prepared better methods of teaching our youth, which some other nations
who share a similar religion are starting to use, but it belongs
to you in the first place, do not neglect your inheritance, which my
sons will be lead to when the time comes!!
In total, all my inheritance, as ashes after the fire, I bequest to you,
my beloved country, so that you can make lye from it for the cleansing of
your children, in the same manner as the Lord did for me in the
beginnings when he raised us and our children from the ashes of Hus.
.. [#] Master Jerome of Prague
.. [#] during the thirty years war
.. [#] In the Kralice Bible translation that Komenský used, the word
“search” is in the imperative.
.. [#] The Kralice Bible was translated in the years 1579-93.
.. [#] Jehoiakim was the Judean king around the year 600 BC.
.. [#] Komenský reversed the actual historical order of Antiochos and
Ptolemaios: Antiochos IV. Epifanes ruled in Syrian in 175-164 BC,
Ptolemaios in Egypt in 285-247 BC.
.. [#] Czech brethren always very carefully kept detailed historical
records, The Acts of the Unity of Brethren.
.. [#] Meaning the south and north kingdom of Judah and Israel.
.. [#] Komenský himself.
XX.
---
But what more can I say? It is time to stop and part with you in
blessing, my beloved country! But how? In the same manner Jacob the
patriarch on his death bed blessed his sons; as Moses when he was
leaving his people. From their mouth I take words and declare as a farewell
a blessing for you, the Czech nation, from your LORD God, so
that you may be and remain a growing branch over the wall. Even though
they filled you with bitterness and shot at you, because archers hated
you with a secret hate, may your bow remain unmoved, and your arms agile through
the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, through the mighty God to whom your
fathers serve, who helps you, and from the Almighty who will bless you
with the blessing of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches
beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb! Let your blessings be
mighty beyond the blessings of my ancestors, up to the bounties of the
everlasting hills. (Gen 49,22-26, translated according to the Czech
text)
Be alive, nation blessed by God, and do not die; may your men be
countless (Deut. 33:6 [#]_)! Bless, O Lord, your fighting, and may God accept
the work your hands. Crush the loins of your adversaries, of those who
hate you, that they rise not again (Deut. 33:11 according to the Czech
text)! Let your time come, so that nations will say: Happy are you,
O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD, the shield of
your help, and the sword of your triumph! Your enemies shall come
fawning to you, and you shall tread upon their backs. (Deut 33:29)
Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people! Selah
(Psalm 3:9)
.. [#] Corrected according to the Czech translation Komenský used which
has “countless, without measure”, i.e. many, where the English text
has “few”, similar to KJV.
