Page:Letters of John Huss Written During His Exile and Imprisonment.djvu/81

 death from the Pharisees under Pontius Pilate, in order to free us from the power of Satan. He came not to destroy the elect, but to save them; as he himself has said, “I have come that they may have life;” that they may have life here by his grace, and still more abundantly in eternity; that everlasting life, reserved for all the elect, which is unattainable to the proud, the luxurious, the avaricious, the violent, the ambitious, the intemperate, the effeminate—all, in fact, who are opposed to his words; but which shall be enjoyed by the elect alone, who listen to his law, who accomplish it by their works, and who suffer persecution.

Meditate, therefore, in your souls on these benefits which our Lord Jesus Christ has heaped on us by his first coming, and strengthen your hearts, dearly beloved, by grace and affliction; for the second coming of Jesus Christ is near, and, with it, the sentence of the Great Judge, in finitely wise, infinitely just, infinitely formidable, from whom neither the great nor the learned of this world can escape; whom they can neither move by favour nor by gifts; and with whom will come the just, the preachers of his Word, and all that have been unjustly persecuted in the world.

Nigh, then, draws the judgment of that severe and redoubtable Judge, whose regard the wicked will not venture to encounter; the judgment of Him at whose word all iniquity will be laid open: at his command the bodies