He encourages her to come out of the spiritual bondage in which
she is held.
_The 20th of November 1553._
MADAME AND GOOD SISTER,--If God had given you a husband who had been
loyal to you, and had lived in concord with you, there would be need
to comfort you at present, and to exhort you to patience. But since
he who ought to have considered you as dear to him as the half of
himself, has been, while he lived, a very severe scourge, you have
occasion rather to acknowledge that in removing him our gracious
God has acted in mercy towards you. Furthermore, the annoyances
which you have undergone ought to teach you to humble yourself
under the hand of Him who has thought fit thus to try you, in order
to make you feel the value of his help, and how his faithfulness
never fails his people. But all the ill-treatment under which you
have pined away, has been nothing at all compared to that wretched
captivity by which you were kept back from the worship of God, and
kept away from the Son of God, so as to be unable to keep faith in
the holy and sacred marriage which he has contracted with you; and
now you must all the more consider, to what end he has set you so
much at liberty. Call to mind, I beseech you, the continual sighs
you have been heaving for so long a time. Although you had many
kinds of grief, I doubt not that your chief regret was that of not
being permitted to devote yourself entirely to the service of God.
Consider well, whether you have not vowed daily before God, that you
wished for nothing but the means of getting rid of the servitude
in which you were held. Now that your wish is granted, rely upon
it that God holds you to your promise. It is for you to anticipate
him, even as your conscience prompts you, without incitements from
without. And yet further, call to remembrance that Saint Paul, in
saying that married persons are as it were divided, but that widows
have nothing to do but to apply themselves entirely to God, takes
away from you the excuse which hitherto you could have alleged.
It is certain that nothing whatever ought to hinder us from the
discharge of what is due to our heavenly Father, and to that kind
Redeemer whom he has sent to us; but the better the opportunity of
each, so much the more guilty does he become if he does not the more
readily discharge his duty. I am well aware that you have regard to
your children, and I do not say but that this is right, provided
that the sovereign Father of both you and them be not left out. But
consider that the greatest benefit which you can confer upon them,
is to shew them the way to follow God. However that may be, it will
no longer be permitted you to allege that you are under compulsion,
and forced to offend, seeing that God has opened a door to you
which might have been shut. What remains for you then but to take
courage, yea even so as to strive to the very utmost to surmount
all the difficulties which keep you back: for I know very well that
you cannot without great opposition dedicate yourself fully to
our Lord Jesus. But to come to the point, make a right use of the
knowledge which he has for a long time past vouchsafed you; and do
not allow the zeal which he has at one time imprinted by the Holy
Spirit upon your heart to die away; and do not knowingly quench the
holy desire which has burned within you in bygone times. Behold how
God allows those to slip away who grow careless little by little,
and how easily he permits them to be so utterly depraved that they
go to perdition; and it is just that the Lord should thus avenge
himself upon those who have preferred the vanities of the world to
the treasure of his Gospel. Now, while many allow themselves to
be seduced by such examples, let this serve as a warning to you,
to keep all the more closely fenced about in fear and solicitude.
Finally, let the adversity which you have passed through, during a
part of your life, make you ponder all the more seriously that true
happiness and perfect glory which is prepared for us in heaven,
that we may not beguile ourselves with worldly repose, which can
only be fleeting and highly seasoned with never-ceasing care and
troubles, and, worse than all, which makes us unmindful of that
soul-rest which alone is blessed. But that I may not seem to
distrust your good-will, I shall conclude for the present, after
having affectionately commended me to your kind favour and prayers,
and having besought our merciful God that if, in times past, he has
poured forth upon you the graces and virtues of his Holy Spirit,
he would not only continue them, but would increase you therein,
and never allow you to decline from the straight path, but advance
you therein still more and more, while in the meantime he holds you
under his protection. I do not know whereabouts your brother is, or
if I should give him pleasure by writing to him, which withholds me
from doing so. Nevertheless, I desire that God would hold him with
a strong hand, so that he may not be estranged from him.[459] From
what I hear, he is a little gone out of the way in some things, and
has much need to be brought back into the straight path; but as I do
not know how to effect this, I reserve it for a better opportunity.
Once more I commit you to the love of our merciful God.--Your humble
brother and servant,