============================================================================================ 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.