[2] Letter without date, written at the same time as the following,
(September 1545.) Summoned in the name of the Emperor to leave
Strasbourg and return to Brabant, M. de Falais had not obeyed that
command. This refusal, in stirring up the imperial displeasure
against him, had exposed him, without defence, to the interested
denunciations of his enemies. The butt of most calumnious
accusations, he saw his character misunderstood, his name outraged,
his property put under sequestration, while he pined away himself--a
prey to sickness and discouragement.
Exhortation to glorify God amid poverty and persecution.
[_September 1545._]
MONSIEUR,--Although I do not know the state of mind or body in
which you are at present, nevertheless, I have good confidence in
God that, whether in health or sickness, he gives you strength to
overcome all the annoyance you may have to encounter. For you are
no novice in the fight, seeing that for a long time past the good
Lord has begun to prepare you for it; and nothing has happened to
you which you had not looked for beforehand. But it is time to
show in reality that when you have set yourself frankly to follow
Jesus Christ, you have not done so without being resolved to hold
fellowship with him at the cross, since he has done us that honour
to be crucified in us, to glorify us with himself. And there is
no doubt, even at the time when you were in your own mansion, and
in the peaceable enjoyment of your property, you would have had
the courage to quit everything had it so pleased him, and that you
were of the number of those who _use the things of this world as
not abusing them_, (1 Cor. vii. 31.) But, forasmuch as it is very
reasonable that one should be taught by experience to discern what
our affection is most set upon, you are to consider that it has been
our Lord's will to give you to many others for an example, and, by
this means, to glorify his name in you.
On the other hand, we know not what it is to part with everything
for the love of him, until he has brought us to the test. True it
is, that he who has taken off his affection from the goods of this
world has already sold all, and has made himself poor, so far as
depends upon himself; but the fruit and the proof of this spiritual
poverty are, patiently to endure the loss of worldly goods, and
without any regret, when it pleases our heavenly Father that we
should be despoiled of them. I do not set these things before you as
to one who is ignorant, or who has need of lengthy remonstrances,
but for the love that I bear you, of which God is my witness. I take
comfort along with you, as I also suffer in your person.
The time then is arrived when you must manifest that you reckon all
things no more than dung, that you may reach forward to Him who
not only has bestowed on you all his benefits, but also himself.
And since God has permitted that you should be disburdened of a
part of your worldly goods, you are to consider that he has clearly
perceived that, for the present, they would prove a useless fardel
for you. I say a part, albeit that, as it were, the whole has been
snatched away from you, yet, so that there remains, as I hope, an
abundance for your use. These whirlpools, however, which engulf the
whole world, have daily greater want than those whose substance they
have swallowed down.
In short, you have not been lessened one whit, seeing that our Lord,
while teaching you that your inheritance is in heaven, has made
provision for what might be useful for the life of the body, by
bestowing contentment upon you, and, as regards property, more than
was needful to make you contented. If the whole should be taken away
from you, there would yet remain the consolation to which we must
chiefly betake ourselves, namely, to yield ourselves up entirely.
It is certain, that having the Son of God, we suffer no injury in
being deprived of all else: for thus highly ought we indeed to prize
him. But further, since this kind Saviour has so benignly upheld
you, that while calling you to the fellowship of his cross, he has
provided for your worldly comfort, it is quite fitting that you
submit yourself to his good pleasure, and, besides, rejoice that in
being minished, so far as the world is concerned, you are thereby so
much the more exalted before him and his angels. For howsoever the
world strives, by all means, to bury Jesus Christ in ignominy, his
burial cannot be otherwise than glorious, not only in himself, but
also in his members. Let us therefore endure personal humiliation,
as shall seem good to him. But my letters would never come to an
end were I to follow out the drift of this discourse. Therefore,
Monseigneur, after having humbly commended me to your kind favour, I
pray our good Lord that he would so work in you now more powerfully
than ever, to make you despise all that is in the world, and to make
you breathe upwards direct to him with your whole heart, without
being turned aside by anything whatsoever, making you taste what is
the worth of the hope which he reserves for us in heaven; and that
it may please him to lighten your burden as regards the body, in
order that you may be all the better disposed, well to meditate upon
the favours he has bestowed upon you, and to take delight in them,
acknowledging the love which he has shewn you. My wife, who is sick
in bed, begs also to be humbly commended to your kind remembrance.
This bearer, who is of the better sort, and of the stamp such as
you require, will inform you more at large concerning our state.
Your humble brother, servant, and assured friend,