ANOTHER LETTER FROM CHRISTIAN RIJCEN, WRITTEN TO HIS WIFE, IN WHICH HE WRITES THAT HE HAS LEARNED THAT NO COMFORT HAD COME FOR HIM FROM THE COURT, THOUGH THE RECORDER HAD COME HOME; WHEREFORE HE CONSOLED HIMSELF IN THE LORD.
Grace, peace and love be unto you from God our heavenly Father, through his Son Jesus Christ. Amen. This, I Christiaen Rijcen, wish you my dear wife, as an affectionate greeting in the Lord.
And after all salutation, I inform you, my very dear wife, that I am still in tolerably good health (praise and glory to the Lord for his grace), as I trust is also the case with you and the children.
I further inform you, that I received your letter, and I thank you for the treasure you sent me. I further also learn that you live in N.’s house, and that he has provided you with wood, of which I am very glad, that you find some comfort there yet. If it should please the Lord, to deliver me out of this again, I hope that we shall repay it to him; but so far I think there is little prospect for me to get out. For I have learned that no advice has come from the Court as yet. Though the recorder has come, there has no comfort come for me with him, except that I thank the Lord, who comforts me in this tribulation. And I hope to approve myself as a minister of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; as unknown, and yet known before God; as dying, and behold, we live. 2 Cor. 6. Thus, my dear wife, I hope to approve myself in all things as the minister of God; for I often hear evil reports, and sometimes good reports, and so the time passes away; and I think that it may probably be so also with you. Hence, my beloved wife, let us be patient in tribulation, fervent in hope, and continuing instant in prayer; and remember me in your prayers, for I do the same for you. For there passes not much time that I do not think of you and the children. I pray you, do the best with them, and if you have some work, make them labor diligently. Tell them that I command them to this; and when you have some leisure, teach them in the book; this I pray you; so that hereafter, when they shall have lost you and me, they may search, as to what tends to their salvation.
I furthermore also learn from your letter, that you desire me to write your landlord a short letter; which I have done. However, I wrote at the top of the letter, to N. N.; but it does not matter to me who has it; may the fruit of righteousness spring from it. But I hope to write another yet, if the Lord permits me. Nothing more for this time, but be commended to the Lord, and greet all acquaintances in my name.
Written the 27th of February, by me,