From c29ff962537d2d554b3e37282e39cadd940c85dc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Matěj Cepl Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 18:41:11 +0100 Subject: Switch to CRLF and UTF8-BOM. --- ksaft_EN.rst | 1920 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------------------- 1 file changed, 960 insertions(+), 960 deletions(-) (limited to 'ksaft_EN.rst') diff --git a/ksaft_EN.rst b/ksaft_EN.rst index 5cba26e..2eec047 100644 --- a/ksaft_EN.rst +++ b/ksaft_EN.rst @@ -1,960 +1,960 @@ -============================================================================================ -Jan Amos Komenský: The last will and testament of the dying mother The Unity of Brethren[*]_ -============================================================================================ - -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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -.. [*] Published, and wrote introductiona and annotations, by Dr. JOSEF STANĚK - In Brno 1935 - Published by The Havlíčkovo dědictví in Brno, HUSOVA 5 printed by F. - Obzina in Vyškov in Moravia - - All following footnotes (not this one) 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 on - 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 used are from the 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 by its size, -still belongs to the most important works of his. President Masaryk in -the first chapter of his book “The World Revolution” [#]_ indicated that -the famous prophecy in the Komenský’s Testament was his guide in the -foreign resistance. - -The Testament was created after the Thirty Years War, which brought -a yoke to the Czech nation of the foreign rule and which thwarted by the -Peace of Westfalia (1648) all hopes of our exiles for return back to -their country. Despite all promises of the Swedish chancellor Axel -Oxenstierna and despite pleading letter of Komenský to the chancellor -before the peace has been agreed, the Czechs were abandoned by Swedish -and nothing happened to help exiles. There was still a weak hope they -will 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 -the Nürnberg. When even this hope has been frustrated, Komenský -understood that the Unity is sentenced to die in the foreign countries -when it cannot return back home. Komenský became the bishop of the Unity -of Brethren in Leszno on 1648. Therefore he writes in the name of his -unity [#]_ 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 give an order to the members of the -unity, how to behave if the Unity dissolves. (The Unity has not -dissolved then yet though, because the council in Leszno the 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. Also The Unity of Brethren will perish for its sins. So it wants to - make the last will and testament following an example of prudent - people. -III. The Unity calls upon its sons, so they stand up by her death bed. -IV. (This chapter and the fifth one indicates 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 in the four swarms groups and - she wants to talk each of these individually: then she plans to - speak to other churches as well. She does not have the earthly - estates, because, if she had any, they were taken away from her by - her enemies. However, she has a spiritual riches and she wants to - divide it among her sons and friends. -V. Some sons of The Unity, the unfaithful ones, broke faith and left - her. Other, the timid ones, on their face they 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 are - succumb to the suffering and they are near to their death, some are - perhaps protected for future. -VI. First the Unity turns to those who remained faithful to her and - shows for consolation many statements from the New and Old - Testament, that they achieve the kingdom of heaven after their - death. They should not grieve the loss of their earthly homeland. -VII. The timid ones, who did not stood the test, should cry over - themselves as St. Peter did, when he betrayed Christ, and they - should return to the Unity of Brethren. -VIII. Other remains of her people (i.e., the unfaithful ones?) the - Unity bequests tears and penitence so they may reform themselves. -IX. The Unity commands her children to weep for priests, who sinned by - let worldly futility, splendor, and vice entered the Unity. -X. The Unity commands penitence and prayers and fast and weeping to all - its children, old and young, and to priests to follow examples - recorded in the Old Testament. They have not done such penitence yet. - If they turn at least now with their whole hearts to the God, perhaps - the deliverance for them comes. -XI. The Unity remembers virtues, which decorated all its members: it was - love to God and hatred towards the worldly vanity, simplicity and - honesty. Their place assumed discord, selfishness, pride, - miserliness, laziness, begging, which brought disgrace to whole - nation. The Unity reminds that we do not live for the life - earthbound, but for the life eternal. -XII. The Unity thanks to the Polish Unity for accepting her children - expelled from their homeland. In the same time, she asks her to be - always remember her origin from the Unity of the Czech Brethren. - She criticizes the Polish Unity for decline in discipline and - particularly the custom to send youth to study in schools overseas, - where it looses whole good moral life style. The Polish Unity - should take care for the remedy. -XIII. If the Unity dissolves, all its preachers could serve in any - Evangelical[#]_ church; faithful should join an evangelical church as - well. -XIV. The Unity then turns to other Christian unities, first of all them - to the Roman Unity, of which all other arisen. She was not true - mother to them but like a stepmother. She should repent and reform - herself; if she will not do it, 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 one. -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 to the article on the - justification by faith. She should finish Luther’s work and not - settle on the mere faith, but it should do good deeds as well. -XVII. The Swiss Unity is bequest by the Unity of Brethren more - genuineness and less meditation about faith, because that leads to - the endless creation of religious sects. -XVIII. The Unity leaves to all Christian unity longing for unification - which has to start with agreement on the substantial matters. -XIX. This chapter, where The Unity turns to the Czech nation, whom it - leaves all spiritual treasures, is the most important from the - whole Testament. Komenský pronounces in the introductory paragraphs - memorable prophecy about the renewal of the 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 the beloved nation: - - 1. love to the pure Truth of God, - 2. the Kralice translation of the Holy Bible, - 3. love to the church discipline and orders, - 4. effort to unify all Czech evangelical unities, - 5. love to the mother tongue, and - 6. better ways how 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 fight and in the work. His enemies should be always - humiliated! - -Writing his Testament, Komenský used form of the Last Will and -Testament: The Unity while dying calls all her children to herself, to -make the Last Will about its spiritual property. Formally his example -was to Komenský the Old Testament Apocrypha “Testaments of the Twelve -Patriarchs” (Jacob’s sons), which was translated to the Czech already 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, and moved to -the depths of his soul, 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 words of the Moses blessing of 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 Jews dispersed -to all angles of the world. - -The Testament is in accordance with the nature of the matter written in -a serious style, which quite often acquires excited even dramatic -character. Komenský here quite often quotes the Old and New Testament, -although not so often as in book “The Mournful”. In the same manner as -in the Labyrinth even 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: edition by the -bibliophiles club from 1909 by František Táborský and Em. Smetánka with -the illustrations by Adolf Kašpar; edition by the Czech Mission Unity -from 1912 (faithful copy of the Berlin edition); Kobr’s edition from -1917 made by J. V. Novák; edition by Komenský society in Prague from -1918 by Jan Herben and with illustrations of František Bílek; 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. Dutch translation is 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 “an 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 comprising - 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 the God 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 the God’s Scriptures, that the one era passes and -the other is coming while the earth stays for ever[#]_, so it has been -fulfilled on us all, who were here before us, and it is being fulfilled -on us who are alive now, and it will be fulfilled on 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, how long He does measure us -to live, 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, that everywhere one passes away and other -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, religions: it happens certainly because the new era -is coming; even congregations [#]_ of The Unity: it happens certainly -because the 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 and my dying and -passing away, and I have been put under the God’s discipline when I have -been pushed away to the middle of strangers, and I have been abandoned -by my neighbors (who build peace for themselves and forgot about myself -[#]_). If The Lord affirms what people do, I see that while I had served -to the will of the God in my age, 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 it would not be lost or -there wouldn’t be division, and that they would not leave fights behind -themselves. Which is the God’s order given to the Hezekiah: “Set your -house in order, for you shall die and not live.”[#]_, and whoever gets -a house from God to steward should not leave the world without doing The -Last Will and Testament. - -.. [#] Here she talks about the Peace of Westfalia. -.. [#] 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 speaking to the each group -individually about what’s needed, I will turn my speech to other -unities, my sisters, older and younger[#]_, with whom and amongst them -I was cared for by The Lord, and now when he calls me to himself before -all of you, I divide amongst you what The Lord had given me to -administer from His Mercy. So, although my external likeness was such -that I could tell with the Apostle [#]_: “I have no silver and gold” -[#]_, because I did not have on Earth where to lay his head, in the same -manner as my Lord; and whatever I had from these smaller earthly things, -homes and congregations, fields, vineyards, they have took off from me -(when forcing me into exile) in the same manner as they robbed my Lord -of his gown and divided among themselves when they have nailed him to -the cross; but I can boast in the Christ Jesus in the God’s matters, -because he gave me a riches spiritual, so that His word could stay with -me. So that I will bequest from those treasures given me to my care, how -I will think fit, to give each of you sons and my friends what you need. - -.. [#] Younger sisters mean Lutheran and Calvin unities, older sister is - the Utraquist unity. -.. [#] Meaning St. Peter. -.. [#] Acts 3:6 - - -V. --- - -You, my sons, whom I gave birth and brought you up, I do not see each of -you same; and therefore I cannot speak to each of you in the same words, -but in different manner. Because some of you betrayed me and The Father -of Spirits, to whom I have born you, and you did not stay with me in my -temptations, but you have left me. Other ones of you persisted, and some -of you may even still persist now, in a half-way manner, while you -flatter my enemies and warming yourself at their fires, you still long -for me, your mother, from the Lord to liberate me from the siege of my -enemies and that you would return to my bosom. Others have more -courageous spirit and followed me falling down under the cross, and you -have not hesitated to share my sufferings, even drinking with me the -chalice of bitterness, which poured for me the Lord, who leads us from -the bitterness of the current age to sweetness of the world to come. But -still I see some of you either because of your age or because of -destitution languish and die; about others I have still hope that the -Lord will care for them until they get to next times. - - -VI. ---- - -I want to delight you, who are still faithful and still remaining in -that faithfulness and who are arriving the end of your faith, with -delight which delighted us 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 grief any more for the loss of your earthly fatherland and -tabernacles of your home and tabernacles of the Lord here on the Earth; -we are led to the 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 symbolises 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. ----- - -Delight more precious than whole world you have disposed of (because -what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his -life, what shall a man give in return for his life[#]_), you fearful -ones, and when you cannot stand your test, you fell; cry and groan over -yourself! Or 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 and 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? 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 faint-hearted 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[#]_ somewhere to a corner, where other -disciples are sheltered. Cry and howl more than others, so long as the -rooster of the God still crows and as long as the Lord still tied still -standing in front of his false judges looks at you: when you leave? Do -you want to wait when your conscience lashes at you as the one of Judas -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 Peter’s footprints for -returning to the flock, which you left, I bequest 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 you, penitence and reform in -front of the face of the almighty Lord. - -IX. ---- - -I commend you cry, like the one which the Lord God commend 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, -brought or let be brought the foreign fire to the tabernacle of the -Unity, fire of the human wisdom, fire of bodily vanities, fire of pride, -splendor, jewels, debauchery, your own will, miserliness, and -indifference, etc., and see they died and are dying in front of you for -their sins; but you cry because this wound is coming on you and your -descendants. - -.. [#] see Lev 10:1-6 -.. [#] Priests of the Brethren Unity. - - -X. --- - -Repentance and prayers I order you such as the ones God ordered in the -time of his great wrath: so that everybody turns to the LORD God with -their whole heart, and with fasting and crying even with howling, -tearing their hearts, not only their robe; that 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.[#]_; and -such repentance 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 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 -heavens with feast and crying[#]_, and again Jews had besought the -merciful Lord with weeping and fasting and lying prostrate for three -days without ceasing[#]_. - -O sons, you have never did such repentance and you have never had such -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. Israelites, just after being twice defeated, sit down in -front of the LORD God, cried, fasted and they offered burnt offerings -and peace offerings[#]_. You were not defeated twice, but more than -twenty times during those thirty years[#]_, but still falling 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 would be -liberation, as the LORD God said, in remains, 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 would put real effort into your correction and -return to your first abandoned love. I recall only now with tears when -I lost it, what the Lord honored me with above other unities and what -jewels decorated my sons and daughters. - -Because fervent love to God and His honor, hatred of the world and its -futilities, 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 against yourself together, and -discords sneaked between you forever. And in the same manner you started -at home you have not stopped to behave in the exile, only that your -thinking have spread thin even more in exile. Some of you fallen in -places, where you are honored, and you got into pride and boasting; and -some for stinginess worse than in your homeland forgot why you left it, -that is the Word of God. Other fallen into disgusting malady, that you -gave yourself into vanity, idleness, laziness, even into begging, which -leads to the ugliness and defamation not only the fate of exiles, but -also themselves, and what is even worse, of whole nation. Some of you -have already unhitched yourself from the yoke of discipline, settling in -places, where you could do whatever you feel is right. - -Oh, my children, that is 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 ordinary things pilgrims -have; our home is in the heavens, and so we should be also concerned -only with the heavenly matters. Just Lebanon [#]_ is here, Succoth and -Zarethan [#]_, where the Heavenly Salomon [#]_ collects and prepares for -His Eternal Temple the alive wood and stones, logs, cuts, chops, chisel, -and planes them and us, its metals, 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 to the Upper -Jerusalem, where, if we let him well form us, 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, who the Lord God -gave me to be 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 and that you brought them up. God give you reward for it -and not letting you into loneliness and protect you from being -abandoned! I ask you however, remember from which trunk you came, so -that you care to be a good grape, well planted vineyard, and do not -change into the wild grape[#]_. Christ told about those who fallen -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 Czech brethren, but they are not.” This is the time, -my beloved daughter, to prevent such disappointments; because such -disappointments truly happen, when not few of your sons are wild in -their flesh, leaving the yoke of the discipline and enjoy the freedom of -flesh, 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 the God’s prohibition and against the -examples of your fathers following examples of others; even when the -young ones live with the old ones, sons stay with their fathers, you -still want the 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 of one towards another, without the compulsion and without the -help of the world arm. But you, O mine ones (being from the Polish, as -well as Czech and Moravian nation), came to that you cannot keep in -order neither yourself, nor your priests, nor the people, not even -younger ones; whom, so that you do not have to labor with them, you sent -(and you still do so) to the foreign schools, that they may purify them, -but they bring back only the wildness, foreign customs, awful style of -clothes, wiseacrity in their brains, and everything in other style, than -what the Christ’s and 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 being -mostly void, and cold, and mostly emptied by winds of many temptations -from their roots, uprooting oneself, so that everything with you slowly -gets tired and is in danger of fall. Therefore, recall yourself, my -sons, before you will be also uprooted by the Lord, and by true -correction, and repair of everything good to prevent His anger, so that -he will not move even your candlesticks from their places! - -.. [#] Revelation 3:9 translated from Czech -.. [#] Isaiah 5 -.. [#] literally “you have learnt neither to close nor to open the 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 let you vanish (the One, who starting judgment at 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 and 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 of your -simplicity, which I born you in and which I have led you to, 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; with people develop only the faith in Christ pure and -religion passionate and hope of the sweet future age, so that you may be -witness of where you come from. - -You then, orphaned listeners, if it comes to that you would not be able -to attend unviolated, pure religious services built on the orders of the -Unity, take the advice that you care for those who still walk in the -same fashion as we were the example[#]_, meaning those who will not -teach you to make on Earth masters, fathers, leaders, but who lead to -the only one, who is in the heavens, master, father, leader[#]_; join -the unity where you will see the truth of the Christ gospel, pray for -its peace and take care for its building in good, also by an example -shine to others, also by the true prayers, so that at least on me and -you, my sons, the Almighty wrath stopped, 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 incorrect quotation, 3. - Maccabees 7 has only 23 verses. - - -XIV. ----- - -I cannot forget even 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 stepmother, or even female bison -[#]_ sucking the blood of your children. I wish that you at least in -your old age turned to repentance and left the Babylon of your -hideousness. Where I bequest, if it is of any use, to you my example, -where paying honor to the God who even in my vices remembered on us, and -following the light of His word I left through His mercy from clouds of -your idolatry. - -If you do not want, I will not bequest you anything, only the worm of -bad conscience within; from the outside I put as my witness blood of my -sons and other witnesses of Jesus Christ, whom you killed between the -sanctuary and the altar. You make yourself to be the spiritual -Jerusalem, and you are the one, but the one as it was in times of -prophets, Christ and apostles, to which the Lord spoke as the witness, -that I bequest you to 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 the 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 you release your harlotry from your face (Hoseah 2:2). If -you do not even then correct yourself and you will not please your sons -by the return to their Father, I bequest to the kings of the Earth, who -until now have carried you on their backs, the God’s zeal, by which they -found you ugly and burn you as a dist with fire (Rev. 17:16). - -.. [#] female bison — it was said about the Lithunian bison that - he deals badly with its offsprings 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 that unfaithful our 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 for 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 Eliah (L 1:17) and you did well to not reject with -the burning and shining candle, but you have celebrated in his given -light (J 5:35). - -And you, the Swiss Unity, was sent John Calvin, to betroth you and -marry as a pure virgin to that one man, Christ (2Cor 11:2); and you did -well that when hearing the voice of turtledove, you got up and you have -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 now leaving -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 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 been forgetting to -give you since the beginning, hoping to share with you my blessing; and -I still wish to benefit you even while dying, and I wish to bequest you -what will help you most: more order than you have, and more orderly -discipline and better wisdom concerning the article of faith on the -justification, without so shameful misuse of it, which I can see with -your sons. - -It was a good beginning by the one whole God gave you to lead you out of -your faint; however those who came to his place were 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 be built and the Lord called Him from -his work to rest, his helpers, who should build, 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 the 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 of the new beautiful -order of the whole Church and founding it on that foundation of unity, -and building for it fortifications 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 other direction. -They started their Christianity with faith, wished to end with the acts -of Law; you started with the living faith, finish with the dead one, the -one without any deeds. - -Oh my friends, I being disciplined by the God Almighty teach you (Job -27:11) and I wish you 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 constancy, growing in -all good according to the orders of the Christ, so that the justified -one justifies himself even more, and saint sanctify himself even more -(Rev 22:11; translated according to the Comenius text), and promise that -those who have more will be given, and they will have an abundance (Matt -13:12). - -If then my beloved sister you are also from those are getting gifts and -mercies of God, let even me add you something more: wish that you -thinking to have something precious, had it truly, but not being misled -by your thoughts, you were not feeding on shells, but broke into the -kernel. I ask for you first of all more diligent act of unanimity in -taking care for the religion and the act 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, and more careful talk about God and most deep secrets of -His than some of your son 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 world 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 to the Church of God from himself, and the bad name for you with -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 Polan, which rejected faith in the Holy Trinity. -.. [#] Arminians: a Calvinist sect, founded by Jacobus Arminius in the - 16th century in the Netherlands, which rejected 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 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, whose I got in the beginning from the -Father of all spirits [#]_, could come to all of you, so that you would -long from all your heart, as much as I was longing, for the true unity -in the Christendom with all those confessing the name of Christ in -truth! Oh if only God give you to find the foundations of all things -essential, things of service, and accidental, as he did it 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 of the Church, where the -enraged enthusiasm is necessary, where to venture fight in rage for the -Glory of God (all the way to sacrificing your lives)! Oh if only all of -you longed for the true participation in the Mercy of God, for the true -participation in the merits of the Christ, for the true participation so -sweet inner gifts of the Holy Spirit, which you can achieve through the -true faith, true love and true hope to God, which is the foundation of -the Christianity! These you can then achieve by the services ordained by -God for service to us: Word, Keys, and Sacraments, whose power is the -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 humans 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 one in that house family of God, under the unanimous order of God -in concord, love 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, promotes -the body’s growth in building itself up in love (Eph 4:16 NRSV), so that -one day the Christian Church and angels could 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, sittnng 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 I turn in the -first place all my treasures, which I have been entrusted by the Lord, -I put to you as the first beneficiary and heir, following the example of -some rich burghers of Rome and kings living on their borders, who made -as 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 that -I bequest to your and give, namely: - -First of all, love for the pure God’s truth, which the Lord started to -show us before other nations through the ministry of Master Hus, and he -which together with his helper[#]_ and other faithful Czechs sealed by -his blood, and from which we were lead away by the smarts of the -Antichrist, first during the Council of Basel, and now[#]_ through the -brutal war power, 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 the God’s truth, so that knowing the LORD, you -would 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 you to -the inheritance the book of God, The Holy Bible, my sons from the -original languages (which God ordered them to be written in) to 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 the God’s glory and your own good -education; and although the enemies burned copies of this book, wherever -they can 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 am commend you special love for the Church orders and the -loving discipline (which should and must exist among the children of -God), so that the Christ would have not only pulpit as a prophet, or an -altar as a priest and bishop, but 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, my beloved country, for -your benefit even that, 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 the passion for the service to the Lord God and -serving him with unity, which I have longed for always, as it is -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 have joined the common confession of the nation in 1575 -and to 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 -our scattered bones the Almighty Lord collects again, covers with flesh -and skin and fills with the spirit of Life, for Him nothing is -impossible! - -Fifth, I submit to you and your sons also diligence in cultivation, -cleaning and building up of adored and beloved language of our fathers. -My sons were always watchfulness was known for this in times past, so -much so, that 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, when they were expelled from their country, to create useful -books written with even sharper pen for helping your sons in even more -simple introduction to various noble grace and beauty in all matters and -speech, to wisdom and eloquence, for more better-chosen replacement of -the current disaster for times when the Lord will grant refreshing. So -whatever books you find, old or new, accept it from my sons, have it as -your own for the best use you can see! - -Sixth, I bequest you better youth, more diligent, better in exercise, -than it used to be. It was my mistake to entrust my youth to alien, who -inflamed my sons and ruined them. If the God liked to return me back to -better times I would took 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 it yourself. Some of my sons worked on this [#]_ and -prepared better methods of teaching for youth, which some other nations -without difference of their 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 cleaning of -your children, in the same manner as the Lord did for me in the -beginnings when he risen up us and my children from the ashes of Hus. - -.. [#] Master Jerome of Prague -.. [#] during the thirty years war -.. [#] In the Bible of Kralice translation Komenský used, the word - “search” is in imperative. -.. [#] The Bible of Kralice was translated in 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 brethern always very carefully kept detailed historical - records, The Acts of the Unity of Brethren. -.. [#] Meaning the south and north kingdom of Juda and Israel. -.. [#] Komenský himself. - - -XX. ---- - -But what more can I say? It is time to stop and part with you by -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 I as a farewell -declare 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, remain your bow unmoved, and your arms agile by -the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, by 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 for the God, and do not die; may your men be -countless (Deut. 33:6[#]_)! Bless, O Lord, your fighting, and 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 trnaslation Komenský used which - has “countless, without measure”, i.e. many, where the English text - has “few”, similar to KJV. +============================================================================================ +Jan Amos Komenský: The last will and testament of the dying mother The Unity of Brethren[*]_ +============================================================================================ + +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. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + +.. [*] Published, and wrote introductiona and annotations, by Dr. JOSEF STANĚK + In Brno 1935 + Published by The Havlíčkovo dědictví in Brno, HUSOVA 5 printed by F. + Obzina in Vyškov in Moravia + + All following footnotes (not this one) 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 on + 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 used are from the 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 by its size, +still belongs to the most important works of his. President Masaryk in +the first chapter of his book “The World Revolution” [#]_ indicated that +the famous prophecy in the Komenský’s Testament was his guide in the +foreign resistance. + +The Testament was created after the Thirty Years War, which brought +a yoke to the Czech nation of the foreign rule and which thwarted by the +Peace of Westfalia (1648) all hopes of our exiles for return back to +their country. Despite all promises of the Swedish chancellor Axel +Oxenstierna and despite pleading letter of Komenský to the chancellor +before the peace has been agreed, the Czechs were abandoned by Swedish +and nothing happened to help exiles. There was still a weak hope they +will 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 +the Nürnberg. When even this hope has been frustrated, Komenský +understood that the Unity is sentenced to die in the foreign countries +when it cannot return back home. Komenský became the bishop of the Unity +of Brethren in Leszno on 1648. Therefore he writes in the name of his +unity [#]_ 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 give an order to the members of the +unity, how to behave if the Unity dissolves. (The Unity has not +dissolved then yet though, because the council in Leszno the 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. Also The Unity of Brethren will perish for its sins. So it wants to + make the last will and testament following an example of prudent + people. +III. The Unity calls upon its sons, so they stand up by her death bed. +IV. (This chapter and the fifth one indicates 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 in the four swarms groups and + she wants to talk each of these individually: then she plans to + speak to other churches as well. She does not have the earthly + estates, because, if she had any, they were taken away from her by + her enemies. However, she has a spiritual riches and she wants to + divide it among her sons and friends. +V. Some sons of The Unity, the unfaithful ones, broke faith and left + her. Other, the timid ones, on their face they 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 are + succumb to the suffering and they are near to their death, some are + perhaps protected for future. +VI. First the Unity turns to those who remained faithful to her and + shows for consolation many statements from the New and Old + Testament, that they achieve the kingdom of heaven after their + death. They should not grieve the loss of their earthly homeland. +VII. The timid ones, who did not stood the test, should cry over + themselves as St. Peter did, when he betrayed Christ, and they + should return to the Unity of Brethren. +VIII. Other remains of her people (i.e., the unfaithful ones?) the + Unity bequests tears and penitence so they may reform themselves. +IX. The Unity commands her children to weep for priests, who sinned by + let worldly futility, splendor, and vice entered the Unity. +X. The Unity commands penitence and prayers and fast and weeping to all + its children, old and young, and to priests to follow examples + recorded in the Old Testament. They have not done such penitence yet. + If they turn at least now with their whole hearts to the God, perhaps + the deliverance for them comes. +XI. The Unity remembers virtues, which decorated all its members: it was + love to God and hatred towards the worldly vanity, simplicity and + honesty. Their place assumed discord, selfishness, pride, + miserliness, laziness, begging, which brought disgrace to whole + nation. The Unity reminds that we do not live for the life + earthbound, but for the life eternal. +XII. The Unity thanks to the Polish Unity for accepting her children + expelled from their homeland. In the same time, she asks her to be + always remember her origin from the Unity of the Czech Brethren. + She criticizes the Polish Unity for decline in discipline and + particularly the custom to send youth to study in schools overseas, + where it looses whole good moral life style. The Polish Unity + should take care for the remedy. +XIII. If the Unity dissolves, all its preachers could serve in any + Evangelical [#]_ church; faithful should join an evangelical church as + well. +XIV. The Unity then turns to other Christian unities, first of all them + to the Roman Unity, of which all other arisen. She was not true + mother to them but like a stepmother. She should repent and reform + herself; if she will not do it, 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 one. +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 to the article on the + justification by faith. She should finish Luther’s work and not + settle on the mere faith, but it should do good deeds as well. +XVII. The Swiss Unity is bequest by the Unity of Brethren more + genuineness and less meditation about faith, because that leads to + the endless creation of religious sects. +XVIII. The Unity leaves to all Christian unity longing for unification + which has to start with agreement on the substantial matters. +XIX. This chapter, where The Unity turns to the Czech nation, whom it + leaves all spiritual treasures, is the most important from the + whole Testament. Komenský pronounces in the introductory paragraphs + memorable prophecy about the renewal of the 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 the beloved nation: + + 1. love to the pure Truth of God, + 2. the Kralice translation of the Holy Bible, + 3. love to the church discipline and orders, + 4. effort to unify all Czech evangelical unities, + 5. love to the mother tongue, and + 6. better ways how 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 fight and in the work. His enemies should be always + humiliated! + +Writing his Testament, Komenský used form of the Last Will and +Testament: The Unity while dying calls all her children to herself, to +make the Last Will about its spiritual property. Formally his example +was to Komenský the Old Testament Apocrypha “Testaments of the Twelve +Patriarchs” (Jacob’s sons), which was translated to the Czech already 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, and moved to +the depths of his soul, 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 words of the Moses blessing of 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 Jews dispersed +to all angles of the world. + +The Testament is in accordance with the nature of the matter written in +a serious style, which quite often acquires excited even dramatic +character. Komenský here quite often quotes the Old and New Testament, +although not so often as in book “The Mournful”. In the same manner as +in the Labyrinth even 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: edition by the +bibliophiles club from 1909 by František Táborský and Em. Smetánka with +the illustrations by Adolf Kašpar; edition by the Czech Mission Unity +from 1912 (faithful copy of the Berlin edition); Kobr’s edition from +1917 made by J. V. Novák; edition by Komenský society in Prague from +1918 by Jan Herben and with illustrations of František Bílek; 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. Dutch translation is 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 “an 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 comprising + 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 the God 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 the God’s Scriptures, that the one era passes and +the other is coming while the earth stays for ever [#]_, so it has been +fulfilled on us all, who were here before us, and it is being fulfilled +on us who are alive now, and it will be fulfilled on 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, how long He does measure us +to live, 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, that everywhere one passes away and other +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, religions: it happens certainly because the new era +is coming; even congregations [#]_ of The Unity: it happens certainly +because the 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 and my dying and +passing away, and I have been put under the God’s discipline when I have +been pushed away to the middle of strangers, and I have been abandoned +by my neighbors (who build peace for themselves and forgot about myself +[#]_). If The Lord affirms what people do, I see that while I had served +to the will of the God in my age, 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 it would not be lost or +there wouldn’t be division, and that they would not leave fights behind +themselves. Which is the God’s order given to the Hezekiah: “Set your +house in order, for you shall die and not live.” [#]_, and whoever gets +a house from God to steward should not leave the world without doing The +Last Will and Testament. + +.. [#] Here she talks about the Peace of Westfalia. +.. [#] 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 speaking to the each group +individually about what’s needed, I will turn my speech to other +unities, my sisters, older and younger [#]_, with whom and amongst them +I was cared for by The Lord, and now when he calls me to himself before +all of you, I divide amongst you what The Lord had given me to +administer from His Mercy. So, although my external likeness was such +that I could tell with the Apostle [#]_: “I have no silver and gold” +[#]_, because I did not have on Earth where to lay his head, in the same +manner as my Lord; and whatever I had from these smaller earthly things, +homes and congregations, fields, vineyards, they have took off from me +(when forcing me into exile) in the same manner as they robbed my Lord +of his gown and divided among themselves when they have nailed him to +the cross; but I can boast in the Christ Jesus in the God’s matters, +because he gave me a riches spiritual, so that His word could stay with +me. So that I will bequest from those treasures given me to my care, how +I will think fit, to give each of you sons and my friends what you need. + +.. [#] Younger sisters mean Lutheran and Calvin unities, older sister is + the Utraquist unity. +.. [#] Meaning St. Peter. +.. [#] Acts 3:6 + + +V. +-- + +You, my sons, whom I gave birth and brought you up, I do not see each of +you same; and therefore I cannot speak to each of you in the same words, +but in different manner. Because some of you betrayed me and The Father +of Spirits, to whom I have born you, and you did not stay with me in my +temptations, but you have left me. Other ones of you persisted, and some +of you may even still persist now, in a half-way manner, while you +flatter my enemies and warming yourself at their fires, you still long +for me, your mother, from the Lord to liberate me from the siege of my +enemies and that you would return to my bosom. Others have more +courageous spirit and followed me falling down under the cross, and you +have not hesitated to share my sufferings, even drinking with me the +chalice of bitterness, which poured for me the Lord, who leads us from +the bitterness of the current age to sweetness of the world to come. But +still I see some of you either because of your age or because of +destitution languish and die; about others I have still hope that the +Lord will care for them until they get to next times. + + +VI. +--- + +I want to delight you, who are still faithful and still remaining in +that faithfulness and who are arriving the end of your faith, with +delight which delighted us 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 grief any more for the loss of your earthly fatherland and +tabernacles of your home and tabernacles of the Lord here on the Earth; +we are led to the 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 symbolises 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. +---- + +Delight more precious than whole world you have disposed of (because +what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his +life, what shall a man give in return for his life [#]_), you fearful +ones, and when you cannot stand your test, you fell; cry and groan over +yourself! Or 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 and 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? 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 faint-hearted 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 [#]_ somewhere to a corner, where other +disciples are sheltered. Cry and howl more than others, so long as the +rooster of the God still crows and as long as the Lord still tied still +standing in front of his false judges looks at you: when you leave? Do +you want to wait when your conscience lashes at you as the one of Judas +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 Peter’s footprints for +returning to the flock, which you left, I bequest 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 you, penitence and reform in +front of the face of the almighty Lord. + +IX. +--- + +I commend you cry, like the one which the Lord God commend 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, +brought or let be brought the foreign fire to the tabernacle of the +Unity, fire of the human wisdom, fire of bodily vanities, fire of pride, +splendor, jewels, debauchery, your own will, miserliness, and +indifference, etc., and see they died and are dying in front of you for +their sins; but you cry because this wound is coming on you and your +descendants. + +.. [#] see Lev 10:1-6 +.. [#] Priests of the Brethren Unity. + + +X. +-- + +Repentance and prayers I order you such as the ones God ordered in the +time of his great wrath: so that everybody turns to the LORD God with +their whole heart, and with fasting and crying even with howling, +tearing their hearts, not only their robe; that 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. [#]_; and +such repentance 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 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 +heavens with feast and crying [#]_, and again Jews had besought the +merciful Lord with weeping and fasting and lying prostrate for three +days without ceasing [#]_. + +O sons, you have never did such repentance and you have never had such +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. Israelites, just after being twice defeated, sit down in +front of the LORD God, cried, fasted and they offered burnt offerings +and peace offerings [#]_. You were not defeated twice, but more than +twenty times during those thirty years [#]_, but still falling 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 would be +liberation, as the LORD God said, in remains, 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 would put real effort into your correction and +return to your first abandoned love. I recall only now with tears when +I lost it, what the Lord honored me with above other unities and what +jewels decorated my sons and daughters. + +Because fervent love to God and His honor, hatred of the world and its +futilities, 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 against yourself together, and +discords sneaked between you forever. And in the same manner you started +at home you have not stopped to behave in the exile, only that your +thinking have spread thin even more in exile. Some of you fallen in +places, where you are honored, and you got into pride and boasting; and +some for stinginess worse than in your homeland forgot why you left it, +that is the Word of God. Other fallen into disgusting malady, that you +gave yourself into vanity, idleness, laziness, even into begging, which +leads to the ugliness and defamation not only the fate of exiles, but +also themselves, and what is even worse, of whole nation. Some of you +have already unhitched yourself from the yoke of discipline, settling in +places, where you could do whatever you feel is right. + +Oh, my children, that is 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 ordinary things pilgrims +have; our home is in the heavens, and so we should be also concerned +only with the heavenly matters. Just Lebanon [#]_ is here, Succoth and +Zarethan [#]_, where the Heavenly Salomon [#]_ collects and prepares for +His Eternal Temple the alive wood and stones, logs, cuts, chops, chisel, +and planes them and us, its metals, 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 to the Upper +Jerusalem, where, if we let him well form us, 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, who the Lord God +gave me to be 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 and that you brought them up. God give you reward for it +and not letting you into loneliness and protect you from being +abandoned! I ask you however, remember from which trunk you came, so +that you care to be a good grape, well planted vineyard, and do not +change into the wild grape [#]_. Christ told about those who fallen +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 Czech brethren, but they are not.” This is the time, +my beloved daughter, to prevent such disappointments; because such +disappointments truly happen, when not few of your sons are wild in +their flesh, leaving the yoke of the discipline and enjoy the freedom of +flesh, 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 the God’s prohibition and against the +examples of your fathers following examples of others; even when the +young ones live with the old ones, sons stay with their fathers, you +still want the 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 of one towards another, without the compulsion and without the +help of the world arm. But you, O mine ones (being from the Polish, as +well as Czech and Moravian nation), came to that you cannot keep in +order neither yourself, nor your priests, nor the people, not even +younger ones; whom, so that you do not have to labor with them, you sent +(and you still do so) to the foreign schools, that they may purify them, +but they bring back only the wildness, foreign customs, awful style of +clothes, wiseacrity in their brains, and everything in other style, than +what the Christ’s and 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 being +mostly void, and cold, and mostly emptied by winds of many temptations +from their roots, uprooting oneself, so that everything with you slowly +gets tired and is in danger of fall. Therefore, recall yourself, my +sons, before you will be also uprooted by the Lord, and by true +correction, and repair of everything good to prevent His anger, so that +he will not move even your candlesticks from their places! + +.. [#] Revelation 3:9 translated from Czech +.. [#] Isaiah 5 +.. [#] literally “you have learnt neither to close nor to open the 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 let you vanish (the One, who starting judgment at 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 and 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 of your +simplicity, which I born you in and which I have led you to, 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; with people develop only the faith in Christ pure and +religion passionate and hope of the sweet future age, so that you may be +witness of where you come from. + +You then, orphaned listeners, if it comes to that you would not be able +to attend unviolated, pure religious services built on the orders of the +Unity, take the advice that you care for those who still walk in the +same fashion as we were the example [#]_, meaning those who will not +teach you to make on Earth masters, fathers, leaders, but who lead to +the only one, who is in the heavens, master, father, leader [#]_; join +the unity where you will see the truth of the Christ gospel, pray for +its peace and take care for its building in good, also by an example +shine to others, also by the true prayers, so that at least on me and +you, my sons, the Almighty wrath stopped, 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 incorrect quotation, 3. + Maccabees 7 has only 23 verses. + + +XIV. +---- + +I cannot forget even 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 stepmother, or even female bison +[#]_ sucking the blood of your children. I wish that you at least in +your old age turned to repentance and left the Babylon of your +hideousness. Where I bequest, if it is of any use, to you my example, +where paying honor to the God who even in my vices remembered on us, and +following the light of His word I left through His mercy from clouds of +your idolatry. + +If you do not want, I will not bequest you anything, only the worm of +bad conscience within; from the outside I put as my witness blood of my +sons and other witnesses of Jesus Christ, whom you killed between the +sanctuary and the altar. You make yourself to be the spiritual +Jerusalem, and you are the one, but the one as it was in times of +prophets, Christ and apostles, to which the Lord spoke as the witness, +that I bequest you to 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 the 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 you release your harlotry from your face (Hoseah 2:2). If +you do not even then correct yourself and you will not please your sons +by the return to their Father, I bequest to the kings of the Earth, who +until now have carried you on their backs, the God’s zeal, by which they +found you ugly and burn you as a dist with fire (Rev. 17:16). + +.. [#] female bison — it was said about the Lithunian bison that + he deals badly with its offsprings 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 that unfaithful our 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 for 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 Eliah (L 1:17) and you did well to not reject with +the burning and shining candle, but you have celebrated in his given +light (J 5:35). + +And you, the Swiss Unity, was sent John Calvin, to betroth you and +marry as a pure virgin to that one man, Christ (2Cor 11:2); and you did +well that when hearing the voice of turtledove, you got up and you have +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 now leaving +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 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 been forgetting to +give you since the beginning, hoping to share with you my blessing; and +I still wish to benefit you even while dying, and I wish to bequest you +what will help you most: more order than you have, and more orderly +discipline and better wisdom concerning the article of faith on the +justification, without so shameful misuse of it, which I can see with +your sons. + +It was a good beginning by the one whole God gave you to lead you out of +your faint; however those who came to his place were 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 be built and the Lord called Him from +his work to rest, his helpers, who should build, 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 the 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 of the new beautiful +order of the whole Church and founding it on that foundation of unity, +and building for it fortifications 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 other direction. +They started their Christianity with faith, wished to end with the acts +of Law; you started with the living faith, finish with the dead one, the +one without any deeds. + +Oh my friends, I being disciplined by the God Almighty teach you (Job +27:11) and I wish you 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 constancy, growing in +all good according to the orders of the Christ, so that the justified +one justifies himself even more, and saint sanctify himself even more +(Rev 22:11; translated according to the Comenius text), and promise that +those who have more will be given, and they will have an abundance (Matt +13:12). + +If then my beloved sister you are also from those are getting gifts and +mercies of God, let even me add you something more: wish that you +thinking to have something precious, had it truly, but not being misled +by your thoughts, you were not feeding on shells, but broke into the +kernel. I ask for you first of all more diligent act of unanimity in +taking care for the religion and the act 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, and more careful talk about God and most deep secrets of +His than some of your son 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 world 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 to the Church of God from himself, and the bad name for you with +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 Polan, which rejected faith in the Holy Trinity. +.. [#] Arminians: a Calvinist sect, founded by Jacobus Arminius in the + 16th century in the Netherlands, which rejected 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 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, whose I got in the beginning from the +Father of all spirits [#]_, could come to all of you, so that you would +long from all your heart, as much as I was longing, for the true unity +in the Christendom with all those confessing the name of Christ in +truth! Oh if only God give you to find the foundations of all things +essential, things of service, and accidental, as he did it 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 of the Church, where the +enraged enthusiasm is necessary, where to venture fight in rage for the +Glory of God (all the way to sacrificing your lives)! Oh if only all of +you longed for the true participation in the Mercy of God, for the true +participation in the merits of the Christ, for the true participation so +sweet inner gifts of the Holy Spirit, which you can achieve through the +true faith, true love and true hope to God, which is the foundation of +the Christianity! These you can then achieve by the services ordained by +God for service to us: Word, Keys, and Sacraments, whose power is the +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 humans 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 one in that house family of God, under the unanimous order of God +in concord, love 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, promotes +the body’s growth in building itself up in love (Eph 4:16 NRSV), so that +one day the Christian Church and angels could 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, sittnng 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 I turn in the +first place all my treasures, which I have been entrusted by the Lord, +I put to you as the first beneficiary and heir, following the example of +some rich burghers of Rome and kings living on their borders, who made +as 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 that +I bequest to your and give, namely: + +First of all, love for the pure God’s truth, which the Lord started to +show us before other nations through the ministry of Master Hus, and he +which together with his helper [#]_ and other faithful Czechs sealed by +his blood, and from which we were lead away by the smarts of the +Antichrist, first during the Council of Basel, and now [#]_ through the +brutal war power, 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 the God’s truth, so that knowing the LORD, you +would 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 you to +the inheritance the book of God, The Holy Bible, my sons from the +original languages (which God ordered them to be written in) to 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 the God’s glory and your own good +education; and although the enemies burned copies of this book, wherever +they can 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 am commend you special love for the Church orders and the +loving discipline (which should and must exist among the children of +God), so that the Christ would have not only pulpit as a prophet, or an +altar as a priest and bishop, but 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, my beloved country, for +your benefit even that, 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 the passion for the service to the Lord God and +serving him with unity, which I have longed for always, as it is +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 have joined the common confession of the nation in 1575 +and to 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 +our scattered bones the Almighty Lord collects again, covers with flesh +and skin and fills with the spirit of Life, for Him nothing is +impossible! + +Fifth, I submit to you and your sons also diligence in cultivation, +cleaning and building up of adored and beloved language of our fathers. +My sons were always watchfulness was known for this in times past, so +much so, that 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, when they were expelled from their country, to create useful +books written with even sharper pen for helping your sons in even more +simple introduction to various noble grace and beauty in all matters and +speech, to wisdom and eloquence, for more better-chosen replacement of +the current disaster for times when the Lord will grant refreshing. So +whatever books you find, old or new, accept it from my sons, have it as +your own for the best use you can see! + +Sixth, I bequest you better youth, more diligent, better in exercise, +than it used to be. It was my mistake to entrust my youth to alien, who +inflamed my sons and ruined them. If the God liked to return me back to +better times I would took 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 it yourself. Some of my sons worked on this [#]_ and +prepared better methods of teaching for youth, which some other nations +without difference of their 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 cleaning of +your children, in the same manner as the Lord did for me in the +beginnings when he risen up us and my children from the ashes of Hus. + +.. [#] Master Jerome of Prague +.. [#] during the thirty years war +.. [#] In the Bible of Kralice translation Komenský used, the word + “search” is in imperative. +.. [#] The Bible of Kralice was translated in 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 brethern always very carefully kept detailed historical + records, The Acts of the Unity of Brethren. +.. [#] Meaning the south and north kingdom of Juda and Israel. +.. [#] Komenský himself. + + +XX. +--- + +But what more can I say? It is time to stop and part with you by +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 I as a farewell +declare 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, remain your bow unmoved, and your arms agile by +the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, by 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 for the God, and do not die; may your men be +countless (Deut. 33:6 [#]_)! Bless, O Lord, your fighting, and 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 trnaslation Komenský used which + has “countless, without measure”, i.e. many, where the English text + has “few”, similar to KJV. -- cgit