Letters of John Huss Written During His Exile and Imprisonment/Letter 55, To his Benefactors
LETTER LV.[1]
TO HIS BENEFACTORS.
My excellent benefactors, I exhort you,[2] by the bowels of Jesus Christ, you who defend the truth, to renounce the vanities of the age, and to combat for our eternal King, Jesus Christ. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the children of men; for the children of men are false and full of lies. To-day they live, and to-morrow they are no more: God alone is eternal. He has servants, not for his own wants, but for the advantage even of his servants, on whom he bestows the riches he has promised them; for he has said—“Where I am, there also shall be my servant.” The Lord renders his servants masters of all he possesses, giving himself up to them, and giving all with himself, in order that they may, without weariness, and without anxiety, possess all things and rejoice with all the saints in eternal happiness. Blessed is the servant who watches when his Lord cometh. Fortunate is the servant who shall joyfully repose on the bosom of the King of Glory! Serve, then, this King with fear, you who love him with all your heart. He will conduct you in safety to Bohemia in his, grace, and afterwards, I trust, into eternal glory. Adieu; for I believe this letter may be the last that I shall write to you; to-morrow I shall be cleansed from my sins by a cruel death, in the hope of Christ. I cannot write what has occurred to me this night. Sigismund has done all with trick and cunning; may God forgive him! You have heard the sentence which he delivered. Do not, I conjure you, suspect in the slightest degree the faithful Vitus.