John Amos Comenius

“ In place of virtue, discord, selfishness, pride, miserliness, laziness and begging brought disgrace to the whole nation. The Unity reminds that we do not live for the earthbound life, but for life eternal. The Unity thanks the Polish Unity for accepting her children, expelled as they are from their homeland. At the same time, she asks her always to remember her origin from the Unity of the Czech Brethren. She criticizes the Polish Unity for a decline in discipline and particularly the custom of sending youth to study in schools overseas, where they loose their good moral lifestyle. ”

“ Some of you have fallen in places where you are honored, and you have become full of pride and boasting; some have become stingy, worse than in your homeland, and forgot why you left it, that is for the Word of God. Others have fallen into disgusting malady. You gave yourselves into vanity, idleness, laziness, even into begging, which leads to the ugliness and defames not only the fate of the other exiles, but also of themselves, and what is even worse, of the whole nation. ”

“ Oh, if only all of you longed for true participation in the Mercy of God, for true participation in the merits of the Christ, for true participation in the sweet inner gifts of the Holy Spirit, which you can achieve through the true faith, true love and true hope in God, which is the foundation of Christianity! ”

“ It is time to stop and part with you in blessing, my beloved country! But how? In the same manner Jacob the patriarch on his death bed blessed his sons; as Moses when he was leaving his people. From their mouth I take words and declare as a farewell a blessing for you, the Czech nation, from your LORD God, so that you may be and remain a growing branch over the wall. ”

“ XIV. I cannot forget you, my beloved sisters, evangelical unities, but even you, our mother, from which we came from, the unity of Rome! You were our mother, but you turned into a stepmother, or even a female bison [47] , sucking the blood of your children. I wish that you at least in your old age would turn to repentance and leave the Babylon of your hideousness. What I bequest to you, if it is of any use, is my example, paying honor to God who remembered us even in my vices. Following the light of His word I left, through His mercy, the haze of your idolatry. ”

“ Woe to timid hearts and to slack hands, and to the sinner who walks a double path! Woe to the fainthearted who have no trust! Therefore, they will have no shelter. Woe to you who have lost your nerve! ”

“ Others, the timid ones, joined enemies of The Unity, but they long for her in their hearts. Third, the faithful ones, unshakably stick to the Unity in her persecutions; but some succumb to suffering and they are near to death, some are perhaps protected for the future. First the Unity turns to those who remained faithful to her and consoles them with many statements from the New and Old Testament, that they will achieve the kingdom of heaven after their deaths. They should not grieve the loss of their earthly homeland. ”

“ People are fleeting: they linger on this earth for some time and then leave. Similarly, all kingdoms, nations, languages, religions and unities. The Unity of Brethren will perish for its sins. Therefore, she wants to make this last will and testament following the example of prudent people. The Unity calls upon her sons, so they stand up by her death bed. (This chapter and the fifth one indicate the outline of The Testament, but that is interrupted by the grand finale and conclusion in chapters 19 and 20, where The Unity turns to the Czech nation.) ”

“ Everywhere one passes away and another comes; you can see what’s even now going on under the heavens; some kingdoms are passing away and change together with their nations, languages, rights, and religions. Even congregations [6] of The Unity: it happens certainly because the new era is coming; it happens certainly because God wants to renew the face of his land [7] .
II. I see in the midst of all these changes my own change, my dying and passing away, and I have been put under God’s discipline when I have been pushed away into the middle of strangers. ”

“ But you, O my descendant (being from the Polish, as well as Czech and Moravian nation) , have become so that you cannot keep in order neither yourself, nor your priests, nor the people, not even the younger ones; whom, so that you do not have to labor with them, you sent (and you still do so) to foreign schools, that they may purify themselves, but they bring back only the wildness, foreign customs, awful styles of clothes, wiseacres in their brains, and everything in style other than what the Christ’s and our ancestors’ simplicity sought ”

“ So I will do what the cautious, according to the wisdom of the World, do: if they have anything to bequeath, they establish their heirs and they divide among them the blessings of God, so that these will not be lost or become cause for division, that they will not leave fights behind. This is God’s order given to Hezekiah: “Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.” [10] , and whoever gets a house to steward from God should not leave the world without doing a Last Will and Testament. ”

“ In the end The Unity bids farewell to the Czech nation and blesses Him with the words of Moses. It wishes Him strength, plenty of men, happiness in the fight and in work. His enemies should be always humiliated! Writing his Testament, Komenský used the form of a Last Will and Testament: The Unity, while dying, calls all her children to herself to make a Last Will about her spiritual property. ”

“ If any preachers remain, who will have nobody to preach to or serve at home, serve the Christ where you can, in any Evangelical church which would ask your service; just remember, that you should take care for your simplicity, which I bore you in and which I have led you in, walking on the middle road, don’t flatter one or another, and discourage any newly created division. ”

“ It is proclaimed in God’s Scriptures that one era passes and another is coming, while the earth stays forever [5] , so it has been fulfilled amongst us all: in those who were here before us, it is being fulfilled in us who are alive now, and it will be fulfilled amongst those who are coming after us. ”

“ You flatter my enemies and warm yourself at their fires, yet you still long for me, your mother, and desire the Lord to liberate me from the siege of my enemies so that you may return to my bosom. Others have more courageous spirits and followed me, even as I was falling down under the cross, and have not hesitated to share my sufferings, even drinking with me the chalice of bitterness, which is poured for me by the Lord, who leads us from the bitterness of the current age to the sweetness of the world to come. ”

“ XVII. To you then, the Swiss Unity, who was added to me as a lover of order and discipline, what should I bequest? Intent to be constant, growing in all good according to the orders of the Christ, so that the justified one justifies himself even more, and the saintly sanctify himself even more (Rev 22:11; translated according to the Comenius text) , and the promise that those who have more will be given more, and they will have an abundance (Matt 13:12) . ”

“ Therefore, even people and listeners and patrons are mostly void and cold, and mostly disassociated by the winds of many temptations from their roots, uprooting yourself, so that everything with you slowly gets tired and is in danger of falling. ”

“ But rather encourage love, concord, and common good in the Church; develop in people only a faith in Christ, pure and religious, passionate and hopeful of the sweet future age, so that you may be witnesses of where you came from. ”

“ She does not have earthly estates, because if she had any they were taken away from her by her enemies. However, she has spiritual riches and she wants to divide these among her sons and friends. Some sons of The Unity, the unfaithful ones, broke faith and left her. ”

“ VII. You have disposed of delight more precious than the whole world (because what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world yet forfeits his life, what shall a man give in return for his life [20] ) , you fearful ones. ”