[452] Notice in the handwriting of Charles de Jonvillers:--"He wrote
this letter to a good young lady, personally unknown to him, who
having set out on the way to Geneva, was arrested by a relation
of her own, who wished to deprive her of her liberty. Two of her
brothers came hither to get letters from him. But fearing lest they
might ask them for their own ends, and to the injury of the young
lady, he wrote and adopted this style for the express object he had
in view."
He consoles her under her trials, and exhorts her to use every
means to secure her retreat to Geneva.
FROM GENEVA, _this 13th September 1553_.
MADEMOISELLE AND VERY DEAR SISTER,--I am much grieved by your
affliction, not only because the children of God ought to bear each
other's burdens, but because I feel the cause for which you suffer
to be a common one; for, as I am told, they afflict and detain you
captive for having wished to follow Jesus Christ. You have, however,
whereof to rejoice in the good testimony which your conscience
renders you in the sight of God, that you do not suffer on account
of evil doing, but because Satan cannot endure that you should break
loose from the bonds of the servitude in which you have hitherto
pined. Notwithstanding, you must call upon God, beseeching him to
have compassion upon you, and committing yourself entirely into his
hand, to hope for such deliverance as he shall please to send you.
Nevertheless, if there were any right and lawful means of escaping
out of the hands of him who detains you, you should ask counsel from
God, so that by his Spirit he might teach you to take advantage of
it. As I am not thoroughly acquainted with the facts, nay, as I do
not even know your person nor your rank, I shall write upon the
report of the gentlemen who are the bearers of the present letter.
They have told me that as you were preparing to come hither, nay,
actually on your way, the thing being discovered, some priest who
is related to you, seized upon you, and now detains you as in a
prison, from whence you have no means of getting free, unless you
pretend to be willing for a while to live in that neighbourhood.
Now, they promise to harbour you in their house, where you will
be free to serve God purely, without mixing yourself up with the
idolatries which prevail throughout the country. Before giving you
any advice as to this, I protest that on no account would I induce
you to flinch, or to seek out any by-way which might turn you out of
the strait path which God points out to you in his word. Although I
have heard that God has endowed you with admirable constancy, for
which I bless and magnify his name, I would yet rather strive to
increase you still more in such courage than in any degree lessen
it. For when we are brought to such an extremity as to have no way
of deliverance from the tyranny of the enemies of the truth, save
by subterfuges which draw back and estrange us from the right path,
there is no doubt but that God calls us to seal with our blood the
confession of faith which we owe to him. For which reason if it
were a question as to declining either on one side or the other,
it were better to die. And in order that you may not be shaken by
threatenings or by anything whatsoever, look to the Son of God,
who did not spare his own life for the sake of our salvation, in
order that we might not reckon our life too precious when needed to
further his glory. Look to that heavenly crown which is prepared for
those who have fought courageously. And above all, beware of drawing
back, rather than which, we ought to use our utmost endeavours to
press forward to the mark which God sets before us. But if the means
be offered you of withdrawing with your brethren, who desire with
you to worship God with one accord, I do not think that you ought
to refuse. In conclusion, you have to pray God, as I shall also do,
that he would bestow on you a spirit of counsel and prudence, to
decide what is right and fit for you to do; a spirit of discretion,
that you may not be deceived and take evil for good; a spirit of
steadfastness to be constant in wholly conforming yourself to his
will.
[_Copy._--_Library of Geneva._ Vol. 107.]