_Jacques._ “My lady, I can not see that there is any crime at all in my baptism, seeing I herein have not followed my own, but the holy institution of our Lord Jesus Christ; had I been able to find another, better way to the kingdom of God, it would not have happened; for I was inclined with my whole heart to seek the Lord my God.” Isaiah 56:6.
_Lady._ “Should they then all err, so many learned men that have been before you; do you dare be so presumptuous as this?”
_Jacques._ “My lady, in Israel four hundred prophets were against the single Micaiah, who alone spoke the truth, and was kept imprisoned on bread and water; which King Ahab experienced in his distress, but too late.” 1 Kings 22:27; 2 Chronicles 18:5.
The lady finally said: “I find many good things in you; but your greatest error I consider to lie in your baptism, which does not seem to me to be of God.”
In this manner she had him brought before her many times; but as he, young in years, but old in the knowledge of Jesus Christ (Wis. 4:8; 1 Corinthians 14:20), had built his foundation upon the rock Jesus Christ, he valiantly repelled all the subtle devices of Satan--whether consisting in many severe threats, or in fair promises of the kingdom of this world (Matt. 4:8)--with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; and as nothing could move him to forsake Christ, he was condemned to death by the rulers of the darkness of this world (Eph. 6:12), and thus testified and confirmed the true faith of the truth with his death and blood, and, through grace, obtained the crown of everlasting glory.
Concerning this, see a hymn in the _Gulden Harp_, beginning: _Tot Leeuwaerden op eenen dagh._
HANS VAN MONSTER, AND BARTEL, AND OLD JACOB, PUT TO DEATH IN THE CASTLE OF BERCHEM, NEAR ANTWERP.
As it has from the beginning been abundantly heard and seen, that the truth is envied and trampled upon by its enemies and haters, and that its pious confessors have had to suffer from them in manifold ways; so, among many other examples, it was verified, at a certain time after Mary van Beckum and her sister had been offered up at Delden, in the case of a faithful brother named Hans van Monster, who lay imprisoned for the truth, in the castle of Berchem, near Antwerp. And since Jesus very earnestly teaches and recommends to us the visiting of the sick and imprisoned, in their tribulation (Matt. 25:36; Heb. 13:3), a single man named Old Jacob, and another by the name of Bartel, moved by the spirit and brotherly love, went from Antwerp to Berchem, to comfort their brother, according to their ability, in his tribulation. When they arrived there, the enemies watched them, supposing that old Jacob was a teacher and elder; for at that time the blood-thirsty papists had put a reward of three hundred guilders upon teachers, to be given to any who should deliver them into the hands of the executioners; and as old Jacob was very eloquent, and could defend himself very ably with the word of God, they hoped to earn said money by him, in which, however, they failed, as Jacob was no teacher. Nevertheless, they kept them, and imprisoned them with their fellow-brother; and as they together were built upon the immovable rock Christ Jesus, they remained steadfast in all these tempests; and since no torment could induce them to depart from the truth, they were together put to death in the castle of Berchem, valiantly offering their lives for the truth, and are now waiting with all the saints of God, the blessed resurrection unto eternal life. Rev. 6:11; 1 Thess. 4:16.