O my dear wife, be of good cheer, and cast your sorrow or care upon the Lord, for he will care for us; despair not. Remember the kind words of the Lord, where he says: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matt. 11:28. For the Lord will remember us, and not forget us. Yea, he will forget us much less, than a mother will forget her child which she has borne nine months. And though a mother forget her child, yet will he not forget us, but will preserve us as the apple of his eye. Is. 49:15; Zech. 2:8. But that the Lord permitted our imprisonment, is all for our best, that through such chastisement we may learn true obedience; for thus we can be truly cleansed, and also truly tried, whether we love aught more than our Lord Jesus Christ. It is comparatively easy to forsake husband, wife, children, father, mother, sisters, brothers, houses, or fields, for the name of Christ; but when it comes to a man’s own person, and his life is concerned, then it is that he is truly tried and refined, for a man will give skin for skin, yea, all that he has, for his life, as is written in Job. But Christ says that one must hate and forsake all this, and his own life also, and take up the cross, and follow him. And whosoever does not do this, cannot, he says, be my disciple. Luke 14:26,27. But we can hate or renounce ourselves in no fitter way than by fully surrendering ourselves into the hand of the Lord, so that we may say in truth: Lord, thy holy will be done, that is: Lord, what thou wilt, that be done. Behold, my dear wife, this is true renunciation.
I further desire of you and all prisoners, that each, as much as he finds himself accused in his conscience, humble himself therefore the more before his God; for the time of grace, and the day of salvation, yea, the acceptable time, is still at hand. Let us not cease knocking, until he have mercy on us and open the door for us, and give us, because of our importunity, the things we need. For he is a gracious God; he forgives very willingly, and soon repents of the evil; and from those who turn to him from the heart he will not turn away his face; but they that depart from him, their names shall be written in the earth. Jonah 4:2; 2 Chron. 30:9; Jer. 17:13. Therefore, the man that asks him for grace ought to examine himself as to whether he does it from the heart; for though man lament with the mouth, the Lord knows the heart; hence let every one be in earnest, for if this be not the case, he cannot succeed. Judith 8. Now let it become manifest whether you truly love God, yea, whether you love him above all.
O what a great word it is which Peter utters: “That our faith might be found much more precious than perishable gold, which is tried by fire.” Show now the true virtue of faith, and pay what you promised and vowed to the Lord, and allow not yourself to be turned aside either to the right or to the left, but remain in the middle of the road, and you will enter in. For he that perseveres in the way of the Lord unto the end, he, and no other, shall be saved; to this end, may the gracious God help us all, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
I have to write in great fear. O my dear wife, and you altogether, I commend you into the hand of the faithful God; may he keep you and me steadfast unto the end. Amen. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.