Martyrs Mirror 971A FATHERLY FAREWELL, TESTAMENT AND VERY CAREFUL SCRIPTURAL INSTRUCTION BY HEN; DRICK ALEWIJNS TO HIS CHILDREN ARTICLE I The paternal farewell, testament and an earnest scriptural instruction from Hendrick Alewiins to his children

Hear me, your father, O my own, well disposed, dear and greatly afflicted orphans, my three motherless and soon also fatherless children, of ten, eight, and six years, deprived of me, and without property, alas, O God! Once more I tell you, O my dear children, from one dear mother I received and kept you all; who most solemnly charged me at her end, as also the holy Scriptures teach and enjoin me concerning you, that I should, as becomes a father, bring you up in divine instruction ( Eph. 6:4 ), to be good and orderly children and men of

God, which I have hitherto, as became me, done with great carefulness and earnestness, but have not yet completed it. And behold, now my labor is taken away, and I cannot under these circumstances further fulfill towards you my fatherly love and debt of discipline. I have therefore now faithfully commended you henceforward to the God of heaven and to my fellow believers, the friends; and I am fully confident that you will be well, very well, taken care of, out of love, for God's sake and mine.

Be subject most obediently, as dear children, to the friends, and you will endear yourselves to them all. I have charged them with the guardianship over you, as though they were your parents; hence be very obedient; fear words, and you will not need stripes. Otherwise you will have to be beaten and chastised much, as the holy Scriptures require and teach, of which I shall write more explicitly hereafter.

My dear little children, it is true, it is true I say, you are yet too childish, the oldest as well as the youngest, to understand the holy Bible, and also that which I shall teach here; but I hope you will delight in reading in it frequently, and to have others read it to you. I also trust that your understanding will increase from day to day and that you will yourselves discern good and evil, and will wisely learn to know who are the true believers, and who the unbelievers; which are the children of God, and which are the children of the devil and the world; who bear the name of Christ justly, and who unjustly. I therefore write in this hope, and to acquit myself of the duty of fatherly instruction, which is still to be discharged towards you, and to the fulfillment of which much is lacking on my part, since I am taken away from you too soon, fully to discharge it. Nevertheless, I cannot forbear, through love, to offer and send you this from afar, my dear children, if peradventure I must shortly go with David the way of all this mortal earth. I Kings 2:2 . Hence I instruct, enjoin, and counsel you after my departure, as many patriarchs and holy fathers did to their children, that you will be of good cheer and courage in patience, and that you will follow the ways, commandments, laws, and ordinances of the Lord, and do His whole will. Always do what is right and good; love honesty, modesty, courtesy, shame facedness, virtue, praise ( Phil. 4:8 ); and whatsoever is Christian like and of good report, that do and think on it, and you will be holy and Christians. Then you shall have everlasting life and the beautiful heaven, that you may be with God and His angelic host, with all the elect of God, in eternal rest and joy of your souls; and you shall then not have to fear the second death, the fiery lake, eternal fire, the wages of sin, disinheritance from Christ's kingdom, or exclusion by Christ. Matt. 25:10 .

My dear children, lay this to heart. As soon as your little understanding can comprehend it, think of returning from the old rebellious man into the new man ( Matt. 18:3 ); of the heavenly regeneration of water and of the Spirit ( John 3:35 ); of the grace of God and improving the right time ( II Corinthians 6:1 , 2 ); of living peaceably with all men, if it be justly possible and lying in you (for the other half of peace lies with the other party); and also of holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord, or enter into Christ's kingdom. Rom. 12:18 ; Hebrews 12:14 .

This, my dear children, is my careful counsel and command to you, after my decease.