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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	find_v	great_a	king_n	4,554	4	3.4720	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94830	By the Comittee for the Affairs of the poor Protestants in the valleys of Piedmont	Trevor, John, Sir, d. 1673.; Hartman, Adam Samuel.; Cyril, Paul.; England and Wales. Committee for the Affairs of the poor Protestants in the Valleys of Piedmont.	1658 (1658)	Wing T2135; Thomason E1073_2; ESTC R208249	7,083	11

Considering also how honorable it is to act grace and to lay out our selves upon such occasions we recommend it again as the work of God accompanied with his own voice calling aloud upon us to inlarge our selves in this ministration and withal to pour out our hearts in faith and prayer that the Lord would yet please to raise up Sion upon the Ruins of Babylon hastening his work and blessing means to it John Trevor Christopher Pack Will. Purefoy Edward Cresset Thomas Vyner Joseph Caryl John Owen Will. Jenkyn Philip Nye Will. Cooper Edmond Calamy The utmost Fury of Antichrist against the Protestants or Reformed Church of the Bohemian Confession in Poland set down in a brief but faithful Narrative and according to the truth of the matter THe Spouse of Jesus Christ she who in the Cradle was besprinkled with the blood of a Protomartyr hath always brought forth into the world men like Abel or Stephen that so there might never be wanting to cry from the earth unto God and that the wounds of that Rose which lies among the Thorns of Persecution might not be concealed Every age and every year in each age and every moneth and day in each year hath produced new inundations of blood unto this day and yet the little flock of the Lord hath always increased under persecutions one while here another there shifting their seats and habitations While it pleased God by the means of Wicklef to kindle the light of the Gospel in Great Britain Iohn Huss asserted the truth of Jesus Christ in the midst of thick darkness of Popery in Bohemia many thousands being stirred up by God to receive it who despising all the cruelty of Tyrants received it with joy until by Gods assistance they took rooting in the Kingdom and grew up into flourishing Churches In a short time after Antichrist breathing out his fury the Truth was banished out of Bohemia and the Confessors being driven out transplanted the Gospel into Poland where being favorably entertained by King Sigismond they in a short time encreased to so great a number that being little inferior to the Papists they were able to boast of an equal authority and priviledges with them Hence it came to pass that the Kings at their Coronations were wont not onely to promise but solemnly to swear protection to such as disagreed from the Roman Religion and therefore they proceeded not to open persecutions save onely in those Cities where the Jesuits had seated themselves in power to wit Cracovia Posen Lublin Vilna and where by their disciples and by stirring up the common people to fury the Churches of the Reformed Professors were a good while ago demolished and divers Ministers cruelly massacred Nevertheless the malice of the Enemies being no whit allayed they were many ways afflicted first indirectly afterwards by pretences under colour of Law until those Churches being worn out by degrees and overthrown were not many years ago reduced to a very inconsiderable number especially when as in the Reign of the late King the enemies being confident they might do any thing brought things to this pass at length that there were no more then Twenty one Congregations remaining in the Greater Poland and those also ready to perish But among these Twenty one remaining Churches the chief and as it were the Mother of them all was that of Lesna which was divided into three Congregations the Bohemian the Polonian and the German each of which had their own Pastors but the Communicants joyntly were about Two thousand Therefore it was that this Church was in the first place exposed to the Enemies malice and of late designed to the slaughter as well by reason of its being very much frequented and grown famous as also because of the Synod there usually celebrated as likewise a famous University and Printing-house and Books frequently published to the world When therefore in the year 1655. the Swedish Army out of Pomerania drew near to the borders of Poland and the Nobility were summoned to Arms according to the Custom of the Countrey it came to pass that the Papists brake forth into many furious expressions crying out That the Hereticks had invited the Enemy and therefore they were first of all to be put to the sword and extirpated which reports though most falsly scattered abroad for the searcher of hearts and reins knoweth that we never so much as dreamt of it yet they easily found credit among the sworn enemies of the Gospel who sought nothing more then our ruine Hereupon they who first consulted to agree with the Swedish Army being terrified by its power concluded about the Surrender of all Great Poland into the Kings protection and namely the Royal Cities of Posen Calissen Meserick and to which also Lesna was expresly added In a little time after they endeavored to cast off the Swedish Yoke and turned their Arms not against the Swedes but first against our Evangelical Professors as conspiring with the Swedes upon the account of Religion and none of them scrupled to take revenge upon them They first of all set upon those of Lesna with resolution of putting all to the sword and destroying that Heretical City by fire and they had effected both unless God had by sending some persons before who by signifying the coming of the Enemy and with what intent they came had possest the Citizens with a panick fear so that leaving all their Estates they every man fled and thus within the space of one hour a most populous City abounding with all maner of wealth was left without Inhabitants who in a miserable condition wandered then into the neighboring Woods and Marishes into Silesia But the Polish Nobility with their Army entring the City did what they pleased slaying a great number of decrepit old people and sick persons that were not able to save themselves by flight then the City it self was first plundred and afterwards so destroyed by Fire for three days together that no part of it remained beside rubbish and ashes In what maner they would have handled the Citizens especially their Pastors they shewed by their heroick actions performed in other places by the most savage Slaughtering of divers Ministers of the Church and other faithful Members of Christ of both Sexes for of all that they laid hold on they gave not one man quarter but very cruelly put them to death with most exquisite tortures They endeavored to force Mr Samuel Cardus Pastor of the Church of Czuertzinen to renounce his Religion after they had taken him and miserably handled him with all maner of cruelty but he stoutly resisting they first put out his Eyes and led him about for a Spectacle then they pulled off his Fingers ends with pincers but he not yet condescending to their mad Fury they found out a new kinde of torment poured molten Lead into his mouth and at length while he was yet half alive they clapt his Neck between folding Doors and violently pulling them together

By the Committee for the Affairs of the Poor Protestants in the Valleys of PIEDMONT THe All-wise and Holy God whose ways of Providence are always righteous though often secret and unsearchable hath made it the constant lot and portion of his people in this world to follow the Lord in bearing his Cross and suffering Persecutions thereby holding forth and verifying that irreconcilable Enmity between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent which was visible betimes in the Bloodshed of righteous Abel whom Cain though his brother slew being of the wicked one yea and for this cause for that his own works were evil and his brothers good Thus they that are born after the flesh persecute them that are born after the spirit to this day and so will do while the the world lasteth In which Cause and Quarrel the Lord hath very many glorious ends But scarcely have any sort of the Churches Enemies more clearly followed the pernicious ways of Cain herein then hath the Antichristian Faction of Rome done that Mother of Harlots and Abominations whose garments are dyed red with the blood of Saints which they have always cruelly shed and made themselves drunk with even the blood of those holy Followers of the Lamb chiefly who would not receive Antichrists mark nor worship his Image nor drink of the golden Cup of his Fornications but rather come out from them and witness against them though they did it in sackcloth and were slain for it Among those chosen and faithful Witnesses the Lord seemeth very signally to have raised up those Christians who though dispersed in divers Countreys have been commonly known by the name of Waldenses who for some Centuries of years have lived among their Enemies as Lambs among Wolves to bear their Testimony for the Truth of Christ against the apostasies and blasphemies of Rome for which they have been killed all the day long and appointed as sheep for the slaughter Nevertheless the Lord the great Shepherd of the sheep hath made their Blood thus shed to become a constant seed of faithful and valiant Witnesses for him which is indeed the more marvellous in our eyes that this Bush hath so long burned and is not yet consumed This little Flock and Remnant which the Lord hath left and reserved are scattered partly in the Valleys of Piedmont of whose tragical Sufferings we have not long since heard and have drawn forth our Bowels to them whereof a very faithful Accompt is given to the world both for satisfaction of Brethren and Friends and for stopping the mouthes of all Calumnies The other part of this poor yet precious Remnant have been dispersed in the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Poland whose Sufferings together with the Lords signal Providences about them have been very eminent and remarkable as hath been made appear unto Us by three godly persons delegated by those persecuted Churches which are now the sad Monuments of their Enemies Rage and of the Lords sparing Mercies These have made their Addresses to His Highness the Lord Protector by Petition declaring the deplorable estate wherein this persecuted Remnant now lieth and with loud cries importuning the Christian Bowels and Bounty of this Nation which cannot but be moved to mourn over them and to shew mercy to them And indeed upon a due sense and consideration of this lamentable subject even common humanity but much more Christian charity should provoke us to a Fellow-feeling of their present distressed Condition These sometimes flourishing Churches were by degrees worn out by the constant Underminings and open Outrages of the Antichristian party being first driven out of Bohemia into Poland then after their taking root and spreading in Poland unto a numerous Company were forced out of the chief Cities there and now at last by the Jesuited and inraged Polish Army persecuted in their few hiding places with fire and sword Their Ministers were tortured to death by most exquisite and unheard of Barbarism by cutting out of the Tongues of some pulling out the Eyes and cruelly mangling the Bodies of others nor did their Rage and brutish Cruelty reach onely to Ministers but to others yea even to women and yong children whose heads they cut off and them at their dead mothers breasts Nay their rage brake out not onely upon the Living not one of whom they spared that fell into their hands but also upon the dead plucking the bodies of honorable Persons and others out of the graves tearing them to pieces and exposing them to publique scorn But the chief Eye-sore and Object of their Fury was the City of Lesna which after plundring and murthering all whom they found therein they burned to ashes and laid in rubbish onely the Lord in his mercy having alarm'd the City of their Enemies approaching march the greatest part of the Inhabitants being three famous Churches saved themselves by flight and are now wandring up and down in Silesia the Marquisate of Brandeuburg Lusatia and Hungary poor destitute afflicted and naked His Highness and the Council having referred unto this Committee the Testimonials and Petitions sent by the said Churches We finding upon examination thereof their case to be thus deplorable which is more at large stated and declared in their own Narrative have caused the said Narrative to be translated and herewith published thereby to stir up the Lords people in these Nations to put on bowels of mercies towards these their exiled and afflicted brethren refreshing their hearts by your love and the tokens of it in a cheerful and liberal supply which will not onely preserve this holy seed from perishing that hath a blessing in it but also uphold among them the purity of Religion and Power of the Gospel The rather considering the present freedom from these bloody outrages we the people of these Nations do by the blessing of the Lord enjoy the continuance whereof we may the more comfortably hope for by how much our compassions are more freely extended to those in misery And if a cup of cold water given to one disciple as such shall not lose its reward how much more when a bountiful relief is given to more then five thousand disciples Which we should be the more forward to advance because they acknowledge they have received much confirmation in the Religion for which they suffer by light received from our Countreyman Iohn Wicklef that famous Witness of Christ against Antichrist even in the darkest times of Popery And we doubt not but that God who hath lately opened your bowels to so large and eminent a Contribution towards the persecuted Protestants of Piedmont for which many Thanksgivings have been made to God on your behalf will again draw out your hearts upon this like sad occasion to the like bountiful liberality it being our duty to cast our bread upon the waters and to give a portion to six and also to seven not being weary of well-doing because in due time we shall reap if we faint not