path: root/ksaft_EN.rst

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Jan Amos Komenský: The last will and testament of the dying mother The Unity of Brethren[*]_
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by which (in the middle of its nation and in its specificity) treasures entrusted to her by The Lord God divides among its sons and daughters and heirs.
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.. [*] Published, 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.

    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.

The Year of Our Lord 1650.

J. A. K.

.. http://www.phil.muni.cz/german/mstc-php-RE.php ... staročeský slovník

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
it was 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 yoking to the Czech nation under the foreign rule and which thwarted
by the Peace of Westfalia (1648) all hopes of our exiles to 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 with its believers and with 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: publishing 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 hear 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. In the same way it 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 churches of The Unity: it happens certainly because the
God wants to renew the face of his land [#]_.

.. [#] Ecclesiastes 1:4
.. [#] Psalm 104:30

II.
---

I see in the midst of all these changes my own change and 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 that
I could tell with the Apostle [#]_: “I have no silver and gold” [#]_,
because I did not have on Earth, in the same manner as my Lord, where to
lay his head; and whatever I had from these smaller earthly things,
homes and congregations, fields, vineyards, they have took off (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 which are 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 they commend to the whole family
of Israel. The Lord God, 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 same manner in exile,
only that you have spread out 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 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 for His Eternal
Temple collects and prepares the alive wood and stones, logs them, cuts,
chops, and 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 in
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
getting 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 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 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 wrong, 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 can show you my example, if it helps, where pay
honor to the God even in my vices remembering 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),
they will raise the resistance against you, their mother, proving that
you are not his wife, but you put away 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 of order and raising up gates and
attaching to them doors and bars and locks with the keys of Christ, but
having started with the Spirit, are you 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 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 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 proven 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 by humans invented beauty of rites. Oh
if only you 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), hit at least sometime 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 people! 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
dillgent, 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 FIXME ušlechtilá spanilost in all matters
and speech, to wisdom and FIXME výmluvnost, for more better (FIXME
šťastnému) replacement of the current disaster for times when the Lord
will grant FIXME rozvlažení. 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 dilligent, better in excercise,
than it used to be. It was my mistkae to entrust my youth to alien, who
led my sons to various passions [FIXME povášnili] and damaged them
[FIXME pokazili]. 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 swear [FIXME prosím se
zapřísaháním] to do 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 FIXME louh from it for cleaning
your children, in the same manner as the Lord did for me in the
begginings 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 say farewell to you
[FIXME rozžehnati se s tebou], my beloved country! But how? In the same
manner Jacob the patriarch on his death bed blessed his sons [FIXME
žehnaje se syny svými dával jim požehnání]; 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.