Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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B07165
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Christopher Angell, a Grecian, who tasted of many stripes and torments inflicted by the Turkes for the faith which he had in Iesus Christ.
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Angelus, Christophorus, d. 1638.
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1618
(1618)
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STC 641; ESTC S90301
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8,211
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17
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a few houres to bring mee out againe to punishment that for feare of stripes I might turne Turke And certaine Christian slaues belonging to the Captaine who were of the Westerne Church came to me saying Now is the time that thou shalt bescourged to death vnlesse thou turne and they besought me saying It is better to dye then turne Turke I answered God forbid that I should denie Christ the true God I will first die an hundred times in one day before I denie my Sauiour Christ Then my conscience said to me in priuate But can I then endure torments euen vnto death Then my reason answered Christ was a man and yet he suffered on the Crosse to death and that not for himselfe but others But then I reasoned againe Christ was both God and man therefore hee could withstand the terrours of death but I am a fleshly man and perchance I cannot vndergoe the cruell pangs of death but my conscience solued all this doubt in that the Martyrs were fleshly men and sinners yet by the grace of God were strengthened to die therefore by the same grace shall I be sustained And in this cogitation I was much comforted and preuailed in spirit and wholly gaue my selfe ouer to suffer death and they led mee straight waies to the place of execution and bound me hand and foote in manner of a Crosse vpon the Earth as appeareth by this figure following These signifie two Turkes beating Christopher Angelo with two Cudgels on each side of him one strikes him on the head and the other on the side And hee remayned one houre dead as the Athenians told him after he was reuiued Since here I haue no witnesses that for the present may testifie the truth of these my sufferings therefore I call the eternall Father and God of all both witnesse and iudge in this manner The eternall God punish me in this World and in that to come if I haue not thus suffered from the Turkes vniustly for my faith in Christ as is aboue-written For they laid on the Earth thicke pieces of Timber like the beames of an house and to them they bound me and then they began to beate mee with scourges as appeareth in the figure Two men dipping their Roddes in salt Water beganne to scourge me and when the one was lifting vp his hand the other was ready to strike so that I could take no rest and my paine was most grieuous and so they continued beating me saying Turne Turke and we will free thee but I answered them In no case vntill they made me halfe dead Then they rested a while saying He is surely very constant and will not deny his Religion but we will tell him that we will let him goe if he will say that the Athenian Merchants which are in Venice sent him to betray Athens vnto the Spaniards and then they began to beate mee on the feete saying Confesse that the Athenians which traffique in Venice sent thee to betray Athens to the Spaniards and we will let thee goe Now the Turkes would haue mee beare false witnesse against the Athenians that thereby they might take them and slay them for the hatred which was between the Gouernour and the Athenians I said nothing to this and till this time I vnderstood what the Turkes said but from this moment that is from that time in which they said twice or thrice to me Confesse that the Athenians sent thee to betray Athens I answered nothing I vnderstood nothing I was perfectly dead and so remayned for the space of an houre and againe after an houre by the grace of God reuiued I know not wel how long time I remained dead but the Grecians of Athens told me that I was dead for an houres space as they had heard from the mouth of the Turkes that tormented me Then the Turkes tooke all my substance my bookes I meane and riches and I was much in debt till by the request of many Noblemen I was freed from Prison And after a weeke they counselled among themselues to take mee and in one houre to kill mee or make mee turne Turke by whipping and other torments But this laying wait was made knowne to all the Christians both men and women in Athens and to me also Then I fled from Athens and came vnto Peloponnesus into the house of my Brothers and the Turkes pursued mee to their house to the end they might take me in the same who wrought meanes for my escape that I was not then taken And after that I was fledde from thence they layd hands on my two Brothers with whom how they dealt God knowes and not I. And thus wandering abroad I found expert Merchants which knew well both England and many other places and I inquired diligently of them where I might keepe my Religion increase my Learning they told me in England you may haue both for the English men loue the Grecians and their Learning and it is a Monarchie where are found many very honest wise and liberall men Therefore I came in a streight course to England studying these many yeares And first I thanke God who sent mee such honest and learned men and secondly your Worships who are my most kind Benefactours and all good and charitable men and I beseech God day and night that hee will restore an hundred fold to you in this life and in the life to come a Crowne incorruptible to you I say and all other good men for their great goodnesse and liberalitie Amen An Epistle in commendations of England and the Inhabitants thereof I am conscious to my selfe of mine owne vnworthinesse hauing not so much as a tast of that Learning which might make me bold to present my lines before so worthy men yet because as a Wiseman hath it necessitie driues a man to many a shift I am therefore thus set on worke Our Sauiour Christ both God and man as God doth require spirituall honour from the soules of men to wit goodnesse loue carefulnesse to performe good things almes deeds and the like according to that of the Prophet Dauid Let euery spirit praise the Lord and as S. Paul commandeth Glorifie GOD in your bodie in your spirit for they are Gods Now as man our Lord requireth such honour as was due vnto that person in him For so it appeareth in that question of his vnto the Leper who of ten that were clensed alone returned to render our Sauiour thankes Are there not ten cleansed but where are those nine Surely as a Wiseman speaketh he must needs be of a very ingratefull disposition who in matters of kindnesse can suddenly become forgetfull For my owne part if there be any such who for benefits receiued shall not returne speciall acknowledgement alwaies vnto his friends let him beare that foule note of ingratitude with disgrace and infamie amongst men I my selfe for some yeares haue beene nursed in this delicious and blisfull English Ile should I not euer acknowledge