Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	church_n	great_a	time_n	4,486	5	3.5288	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

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

severed his Head from his Body They took Iohn Iacobides Pastor of the Church of Dembnick and Alexander Wartens his Colleague and another that was in company with them as they passed through the Town of LUBIN and hurrying them up and down for divers hours and grievously handling them after the maner of Tyrants then last of all cutting their Throats with a Razor threw them headlong while they were yet breathing into a great pit which had been before-hand prepared for their Martyrs and stifled them by casting down Dung and Dirt upon them They a great while pursued Andrew Oxlitius a yong man designed for the Ministery whom after long seeking they at last found in the open field and in the end having taken him they cut off his Head with a Sithe chopping it into small pieces and the dead carkase also they slasht in a barbarous maner The same fate befel Adam Milota a Citizen of Lesna but they more grievously handled an old man of above seventy whose name was Simon Priten and many others whose names it were too tedious to relate Of that barbarous execution which they did upon the weaker Sex there were besides other examples horrid Trophies of Cruelty erected in the said City of Lesna a pious Matron there who was the mother of three children not being able quick enough to leave the City and being slain in the open street they cut off her hands and feet and cutting off her childrens heads they laid two of them at her breasts and the third by her side In like maner another woman having her hands and feet cut off and her tongue cut out being inclosed and bound in a Sack lived the space of two days making most miserable lamentation Grief forbids us to adde more for they behaved themselves so furiously towards us that there remains not an example of any one man saved of all those that happened to fall into their hands It is notoriously known how that fury of theirs tyrannized also over the dead some they dragd out of their graves and cut in pieces as at Zichlin others they exposed naked for a publique Spectacle as at Lesna of which outragious action we had an example even in the dead Body of the most Serene Landgrave of Hassia which was drawn out of the grave who was heretofore slain in a most barbarous and tyrannical maner at Koscian but buried by our Friends at Lesna The like was acted also upon the Body of the most Noble Arciszevius heretofore the valiant Admiral of the Hollanders in Brazile which was likewise dragd out of the grave and being stript of the Grave-clothes was found after the firing of Lesna There are divers other examples which the Christian Reader may finde in the Book Entituled Lesnae Excidium faithfully written and lately set forth in print but they are such examples onely as are commonly known for who is able to relate all things in particular as burning men alive drowning others with stones tyed about their necks c. Now Lesna being destroyed the fury of the Enemy proceeded to the persecutions of others they in a short time utterly demolished all our Congregations not onely driving away the Pastors but also either burning or leaving most of the Temples desolate as at Karmin Dembnick Skochy Czriuczin c. yea and the Auditories themselves were either slain as in the Town of Skochy where there was a very flourishing Church of the Bohemian Exiles Sixty persons both men and women were cruelly put to death or else they were scattered abroad so that there remained not one place wherein the Worship of God may be celebrated Lo this is the most miserable state and condition of our Churches moreover our Countreymen to the number of 5000 besides youths and children being dispersed in banishment which hath now befallen most of us the second time especially throughout Silesia as also through the Marck Lusatia Hungary c. finde no comfort but much misery and are there exposed to the hatred and envy of men We that are Pastors dare not openly minister to our Auditories with the Word and Sacraments but onely in private Meetings or in Woods among Fenny places God onely seeing us who is witness of these calamities and our comfort in extremities Indeed being thus destitute of all things we lead a wretched life in banishment being afflicted with hunger and nakedness and are become next to the most miserable Waldenses the greatest spectacle of calamity to the Christian World for so it hath seemed good to that Soveraign Wisdom that governs all things that we should be inheritors of the Closs and persecution of those men from whom we have derived the original of our Doctrine and external Succession For truly we are the remaining Progeny even of the Waldenses with whom being raised from the ashes of blessed Huss and with whom combining into the same holy Fellowship of the Faith and afflictions of Christ we have for two whole ages and more been perpetually subject to the like storms of Calamities until at length we fell into this Calamity greater then ever was known in the memory of our Fathers and which threatens us with utter destruction unless God prevent it The truth is this business constrains us to amazement and tears greater then can be exprest in words to set forth our affliction and sorrow If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies we desire that this affliction of Joseph may be recommended especially to all that are of the houshold of Faith Let them not suffer those to perish whom the same Faith and the same Spirit of Christ hath joyned with them in so near a relation we beseech them in the Name of Christ that they would rather make haste to relieve those who are ready to perish we being assured that we suffer this persecution upon no other account then for the confession of the Truth from those Enemies who have acted such things as these are against us in times past and are now at length by Gods permission pouring out their fury upon us Signed in the name of the said distressed Churches by their Delegates and now Exiles for the Cause of Christ Adam Samuel Hartman Pastor of the Church of Lesna in Poland and Rector of the famous University there Paul Cyril a late Member of the University of Lysna LONDON Printed by HEN. HILLS and JOHN FIELD Printers to His Highness Anno Dom. 1658.