HANS VAN OVERDAM PUT TO DEATH AT GHENT; ALSO HIS CONFESSION, WRITTEN IN PRISON, AND AFTERWARDS SEALED WITH HIS BLOOD, IN THE YEAR 1550.
Hans van Overdam, together with his fellow-prisoners for the testimony of Jesus Christ, wishes all brethren and sisters in the Lord, grace, peace, and an ardent love, from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be praise, honor, and majesty forever and ever. Amen.
My most dearly beloved, grieve not on my account (Eph. 3:13), but praise the Lord that he is so good a Father to me, that I can suffer bonds and imprisonment for the testimony of Christ, for which I also hope to go into the fire. The Lord give me strength through his Holy Spirit. Amen. Walk in the fear of the Lord, even as you are called. 1 Corinthian 7:17. And though we see one another no more in the flesh, may we behold each other hereafter, in the kingdom of our Father, where I hope soon to be. The peace of the Lord be with you. Amen.
O dear brethren and sisters in the Lord, my heart’s deepest desire and prayer is (Rom. 10:1), that you may constantly give more and more diligence to make sure the calling whereunto you are called by God the Father, through Christ, to the majesty and glory of the kingdom of his beloved Son, who purchased his church with his own blood, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Eph. 5:25–27.
Therefore, O dear friends, mark here what great love the Father has shown us, that he did not spare his only begotten Son, and how Christ so willingly delivered himself up, and suffered the most ignominious and shameful death of the cross, and shed his precious blood, for us, to wash and cleanse us from our sins. O dear brethren and sisters, let us take heed, and diligently pray and watch, lest the saving grace of God, and the unspeakable love of the Father, and of Christ, be neglected or forgotten by us (Heb. 12:15), through the cares and anxieties of this world, or through the lusts and desires which kill the soul, and we be washed and scoured off as spots and wrinkles from the glorious church of Christ; yea, cut off as unfruitful branches, and destined to the fire. For, my most beloved, it is not enough, that we have received baptism upon faith, and been engrafted by it into Christ, if we do not hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Heb. 3:14. Therefore, if there is any one that feels that he is become a spot or wrinkle, let him see to it that he make haste, before the day come upon him, as the snare upon the bird; let him repent with true sorrow and penitence, lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and run with full strength the race that is set before him, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but that it may much rather be healed and strengthened, that we may pass the time of our sojourning here in the fear of God, and keep ourselves unspotted from this wicked evil world, which is full of deceit, snares, and nets, which the devil sets for the purpose of seducing the souls of men, and of taking them captive by manifold lusts and wiles.
O Lord, preserve (from this murderer) thy pilgrims who walk in the hope of thee, and expect their help and comfort from thee alone. O heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, preserve us that thou mayest perform the good work which thou hast begun in us, to the praise and glory of thy holy name. O thou Almighty and everlasting God, how utterly incomprehensible is thy grace and fatherly mercy upon those that fear and love thee. O Father, who should not fear such a God, who knows how to deliver his own; though they may seem to be forsaken here for a little season, despised of all men, rejected and cursed on this earth; yet he does not forsake his own through the consolation of his Holy Spirit in our hearts, who makes us bold and joyful, that we may suffer reproach for his name. And we hope through the goodness of God; that our pilgrimage will soon end, and we shall be delivered from this miserable world and vale of tears, and that this earthly house of our tabernacle will be dissolved, that we may be brought home to our heavenly Father, and receive the crown of everlasting life, which is set before us, and which we hope no creature shall take from us. To this end, may the Almighty and eternal God, the merciful Father, strengthen us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.