Therefore, my children, love your neighbor heartily, and this with a liberal heart. Let the light of the gospel shine in you. 2 Cor. 4:4. Deal your bread to the hungry, clothe the naked, and do not suffer anything to remain with you double, since there are enough that lack. Is. 58:7. And whatsoever the Lord grants you, that possess with thankfulness, not only for yourselves, but also for your neighbor, and seek not your own profit, but that of your neighbor. In short, my children, let your life be conformed to the gospel of Christ. And the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, that your whole spirit, soul and body may be found blameless unto the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory, power and majesty forever and ever. Amen. Heb. 13:20,21; 1 Thessalonians 5:23.
O holy Father, sanctify the children of thy handmaiden in thy truth, and keep them from all evil, and from all unrighteousness, for thy holy name’s sake. O almighty Father, I commend them unto you, since they are thy creatures; care for them, for they are thy handiwork; so that they may walk in thy paths. Amen.
MAEYKEN WENS, AND SOME OF HER FELLOW-BELIEVERS, BURNT FOR THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST, AT ANTWERP, A. D. 1573.
The north wind of persecution blew now the longer the more through the garden of the Lord, so that the herbs and trees of the same (that is the true believers) were rooted out of the earth through the violence that came against them. This appeared, among other instances, in the case of a very godfearing and pious woman, named Maeyken Wens, who was the wife of a faithful minister of the church of God in the city of Antwerp, by the name of Mattheus Wens, by trade a mason. About the month of April, A. D. 1573, she, together with others of her fellow-believers, was apprehended at Antwerp, bound, and confined in the severest prison there. In the meantime she was subjected to much conflict and temptation by so-called spirituals (ecclesiastics), as well as by secular persons, to cause her to apostatize from her faith. But when she could by no manner of means, not even by severe tortures, be turned from the steadfastness of her faith, they, on the fifth day of October, 1573, passed sentence upon her, and pronounced it publicly in court at the aforementioned place, namely, that she should, with her mouth screwed shut, or with her tongue screwed up, be burnt to ashes as a heretic, together with several others, who were also imprisoned and stood in like faith with her.
Thereupon, the following day, the sixth of October, this pious and godfearing heroine of Jesus Christ, as also her fellow-believers that had been condemned with a like sentence, were brought forth, with their tongues screwed fast, as innocent sheep for the slaughter, and each having been fastened to a stake in the market place, deprived, by fierce and terrible flames, of their lives and bodies, so that in a short time they were consumed to ashes; which severe punishment of death they steadfastly endured; hence the Lord shall hereafter change their vile bodies, and fashion them like unto his glorious body. Philip. 3:21.
_Further observation._
The oldest son of the aforementioned martyress, named Adriaen Wens, aged about fifteen years, could not stay away from the place of execution on the day on which his dear mother was offered up; hence he took his youngest little brother, named Hans (or Jan) Mattheus Wens, who was about three years old, upon his arm and went and stood with him somewhere upon a bench, not far from the stakes erected, to behold his mother’s death.