rest were fired only two that sunke down to rights and had little but their Masts appearing above water It remained to compleat this Mercy that our own shiâ—s should come off well wherein the greatest hazzard and difficulty lay for some riding near into the shore and being sorely maimed did require to be warped off others when we came to weigh drove with the wind all the while blowing right into the bay and one of our best Frigates strook The enemy in the mean time supplyed fresh men into his Forts for those we had killed and beaten out in the heat of the Action and from them and the Castle continued plying upon us till about seven of the Clock at night every Ship and Vessell belonging to our Fleet were by the good hand of God got safe out of Command In this service we had not above fifty slain outright and one hundred and twenty wounded and the damage to our ships was such as in two days time we indifferently well repaired for present security Which we had no sooner done but the Wind veered to the Southwest which is rare among those Islands and lasted just to bring us to our former Station neer Cape Maries where we arrived the second of May following For which mercifull appearance all along with us we desire the Lord may have the praise and glory to whom only it is due And that all thar hear of it may turne and say as of a truth we have found that among the gods there is none like unto him neither are there any workes like unto his workes The Names of the Commanders of the New Spain Fleet and of the other Ships that were burnt in the Sancta Cruce Road on the 20th of April 1657. Don Diego Diagues Generall Don Josepho Sentenno Vice-Admirall Roque Gallindo Rear-Admirall Gasper Goteras in the Great Campeachan Martin De Laxando in the little Campeachan These Commanders with their Ships came from Lavela Cruce in New Spain Iohn Quintero Francisco De Estoâ—ta Pedro Fegoroa Don Francisco Velasques Pedro Oreguel Commanders of the Admirall and Vice-Admirall of Hundoras Francisco Martines Francisco De Arana Pedro Sorrilio Commander of the Ship which came from Sancto Domingo These Commanders with their Ships were in Sancta Cruce before their Fleet arrived from the Indies Gregory Gomes Francisco Marcadel Fernando Sohes An exact Relation of the manner of the Solemn Investiture or happy inauguration of his Highnesse the Lord Protector at Westminster Mr Speaker in the name of the Par presented Seuerall thinges to his Highness Viz a Robe of Purple Veluet Lined wth Ermine a Large Bible Richly Guilt Bossed Next a Sword Lastly a Septer of Massiâ— Gold and then administred the Oath to his Highnesse Iune 26 an 1â—â—â— FRiday the 26 of June 1657. being agreed upon for the Investiture of his Highness the Lord Protector and a large place being raised and prepared at the upper end of Westminster Hall for that purpose there was in the midst thereof under the great Window a rich cloth of Estate set up and under it a chair of state placed upon an ascent of two degrees covered with carpets and before it a Table with a chair appoynted for the Speaker of the Parliament and on each side of the Hall upon the said structure were seats raised one above another and decently covered for the Members of Parliament and below them seats on one side for my Lords the Judges of the Land and on the otherside for the Aldermen of the city of London About two of the clock in the Afternoon his Highnesse came from Whitehall by water and Landing at the Parliament stairs went up into the chamber called the Lords house where having retired himself a while Mr. Speaker and the members of parliament being come to the Painted Chamber his Highness attended by his Councell the Officers of State and the Judges met them and gave his consent to the Additionall and Explanatory Petition and advice of the Parliament and all such other Bills as were then presented to him From thence the Speaker with the Members of Parliament departed to the great Hall at Westminster where they seated themselves in the places provided for them His Highnesse after a short retirement in a Boom near the Painted Chamber returned into the Lords House the Lords Commissioners of the great seale the two Lords Chiefe Justices the Master of the Rolls and the Judges in the interim placing themselves on one side of the said House and the Lord Major Recorder and Aldermen of the City of London on the other From the said House his Highnesse passed towards the Hall in manner following In the first place went his Highnesse his Gentleman and other persons of quality next an Officer of Arms going before the Recorder and Aldermen of London in their Scarlets next another Officer of Arms went before Master Attorney Generall and my Lords the Judges in their Robes and Order next them Norroy King of Arms then four Searjants at Armes with their Maces going before the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury and of the Great Seale the Lord Commissioner Fiennes bearing the Seal and the Lord President of his Highnesse Councill Then came Garter principall King of Armes before the Earl of Warwick who bare the Sword before his Highnesse on whose left hand went the Lord Major of London by his Highnesse speciall favour bearing the City sword After whom came his Highnesse being attended by his Councill the Principall Secretary of State and divers of the Nobility and other persons of great quality His Highness being entred on the place and standing under the Cloth of Estate Master Speaker did in the name of the Parliament present severall things ready laid upon the Table to his Highness viz. A Robe of purple Velvet lined with Ermine being the habit anciently used at the solemn investiture of Princes Next a larg Bible richly guilt and boss'd next a Sword and lastly a Sceprer being of Massy Gold which being so presented Mr Speaker came from his Chair took the Robe and therewith vested his Highnesse being assisted therein by the Earle of Warwick the Lord Whitelock and others Which being done the Eible was delivered unto his Highnesse after that Mr Speaker girt about him the Sword and lastly delivered his Highnesse the Scepter These things being performed Mr Speaker returned unto his Chair and administred the Oath to his Highnesse prepared by the Parliament the form whereof is as followeth I Doe in the presenec and by the Name of God Almighty promise and swear that to the uttermost of my power I will uphold and maintain the True Reformed Protestant Christian Religion in the purity thereof as it is contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to the uttermost of my power and understanding and encourage the Profession and Professors of the same And that to the utmost of my power I will endeavor as Chief Magistrate of these three Nations the maintenance
presented to him The Bills concerning private persons I omit Those that are of a publick nature were as followeth 1. The Additionall Explanatory Petition and advice 2. An Act to adjourn this Parliament till the 20th of January London July 1. This day his Highnesse the Lord Protector was proclaimed in the City with great solemnity About ten a clock in the morning at Whitehall Gate the persons met who were to give attendance upon this Ceremony First the Messengers belonging to the Councill next Trumpetters next them the lifeguard of his Highnesse after them other Trumpetters next his Highnesse his Gentleman after them more Trumpetters next divers officers of the Army gallantly mounted then Trumpetters again next the Searjants at Armes and the Heralds of Armes and Garter principall King of Armes betwixt two Gentlemen-Ushers before his Highnesse Councill in their Coaches proceeding in this order to Temple-Bar At this place they were met by the Lord Major mounted on horseback in his Crimson Velvet Gown and his Colleâ— of ss. with the Recorder and Aldermen of London all in their Scarlet on horseback attended by his Officers Trumpetters and the loud Musick of the City From thence an officer of Arms proceeded before the Aldermen then next before the Lord Major his Mace-bearer the Sword-bearer with his cap of maintenance and a Herald of Armes Then proceeded severall Serjeants at Armes belonging to his Highnesse and councill with Norroy King of Armes next after them Garter principall King of Armes between two Gentlemen Ushers going immediately before the Lords of his highnesse councill and the principal secretary of State in their coaches In this manner they proceeded towards the Royal Exchange making two stands by the way First at chancery-lane end over against the Inner Temple gate where Proclamation was made by the common crier of London according to the tenor of the proclamation already published by act of Parliament the Lord Major Councill the Aldermen of London and all Officers standing bare The second stand was made in Cheapside at the end of Woodstreet where proclamation was made as before Thence they proceeded in order to the Royal Exchange ariving there at Exchange time where Proclamation was made as in all other places by sound of Trumpet in the form aforesaid and the humble petition and advice was published after which the Trumpets sounding three loud acclamations were made by the people Long live the Lord Protector Whitehall Novemb. 5. The fury of the Jesuited popish party in Poland having of late with all violence been executed in a barbarous manner upon the reformed professors who are of the Bohemian confession in those parts insomuch that the Churches are dispersed and the poor christians forced to fly into forein parts for safety of their lives divers of their exiled Pastors being come into England to seek for reliefe the case of the poor exiles stands referred by his Highnesse and the Councill to the consideration of those worthy and pious persons Ministers and others who are the Committee for Piedmont The most inhumane persecutions lately acted by the Papists and their party in Poland against our Brethren of the Reformed Religion are some of them as followeth The first remarkeable is that of Lesna a populous wealthy city and the great refuge of the Reformed who frequently came thither from other parts for shelter The church there was divided into three congregations the Bohemian the Polonian and the German This City they first set upon intending to put all to the Sword and destroy it with fire but the Citizens having notice of their coming on quitted the City leaving all their wealth behind flying through Woods and Boggs into Silesia so that the enemy entring without resistance found none but aged and bed-rid persons whom they barbaroufly flew and after they had plundered the City they reduced it to ashes In other places they cruelly murthered divers Minister of the Word and people of all ages and Sexes making them to end their lives by exquisite tortures The Pastor of the Church of Czvirzin had his eyes first pulled out because he would not renounce the faith then they pulled off with Pincers the Joynts of his fingers but he still remaining constant they poured moulten Lead into his mouth and lastly putting his head between the shuts of a door they severed it from his body The Pastor of the Church of Dembnick and two others after many vilanous abuses offered to their persons had their throats cut Finding also a young Minister in the field they cut off his head with a Sithe and afterwards mangled his body The like cruelty they acted also upon a citizen of Lesna and worse upon many others not sparing even the weaker sex nor children A pious Matron of Lesna with her three children not getting quick enough out of Town was murthered in the open street her hands and feet cut off and two of her children with their heads cut off laid upon her breasts the third by her side A Diuine burnte in the middell of his bookes his Childe pulled from the brest tost on a speare Cords drawne thorow the legs Armes Mens guttes pulled out of there mouthes A Catalogue of the names of those Honourable Persons who are by writ summoned to sit in the other house of Parliament THe Lord Richard Cromwell The Lord Henry Cromwel Lord Deputy of Ireland Nathaniel Fiennes John Lisle Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal Henry Lawrence Lord President of his Highness privy Council The Lord Charls Fleetwood Robert Earl of Warwick Edmond Earl of Mulgrave Edward Earl of Manchester William Lord Viscount Say and Seal Lord John Cleypole Mr. of the Horse Philip Lord Viscount Lisle Charls Lord Viscount Howard Philip Lord Wharton Thomas Lord Fauconbridge Lord John Disbrow Lord Edward Montague Generals at Sea George Lord Evre The Lord Whitelock Sir Gilbert Pickering Col William Sydenham Sir Charls Wolseley M. G. Philip Skippon Lord Strickland Col. Philip Jones Sir William Strickland Francis Rous Esq John Fiennes Esq Sir Francis Russel Sir Thomas Honywood Sir Arthur Hesilrigg Sir John Hobart Sir Richard Onslow Sir Gilbert Gerard Sir William Roberts John Glyn Oliver St. John Lords Chief Justices William Pierrepoynt Esq John Jones Esq John Crew Esq Alexander Popham Esq Sir Christopher Pack Sir Robert Tichborn Edward Whalley Esq Sir John Barkstead Knight Lievtenant of the Tower Sir Thomas Pride Sir George Fleetwood Richard Ingoldsby Esq Sir John Hewson James Berry Esq William Goffe Esq Thomas Cooper Esq Edmond Thomas Esq George Monck Commander in Chiefe of his Highnesse forces in Scotland David Earle of Castils Sir William Lockhart Sir Archibald Johnston of Warriston William Steel Lord Chancellor of Ireland The Lord Broghil Sir Mathew Tomlinson In number Sixty The Reader is to excuse this List if the names be not set down in their due order because the Copy came to my hand as here you see it Some Heads of the Speech made by His Highnesse January 1657. HIs Highnesse
and preservation of 〈◊〉 and safety and just Rights and Priviledges of the People thereof And shall in all things according to our best knowledge and power govern the People of these three Nations according to Law The speech of the Lord Widdrington Speaker of the Parliament at the Investiture of his Highnesse the Lord Protector 26. June 1657. May it please your Highnesse YOu are now upon a great Theator in a large Chore of People You have the Parliament of England Scotland and Ireland before you on your right hand my Lords the Judges and on your left hand the Lord Major Aldermen and Sheriffs of London the most noble and populous City of England The Parliament with the interposition of your suffrage makes Laws and the Judges and Governours of London are the great Dispensers of those Laws to the people The occasion of this great convention and intercourse is To give an Investiture to your Highnesse in that eminent place of Lord Protestor A name you had before but it is now setled by the full and unanimous consent of the People of these three Nations assembled in Parliament You have no new name but a new date added to the Old Name The sixteenth of December is now changed to the 26 of June I am commanded by the Parliament to make oblation to your Highnesse of Four things in order to this Inauguration The First is a Robe of Purple an Embleme of Magistracy and imports righteousnesse and justice When you have put on this Vestment I may say and I hope without offence that you are a Gown man This Robe is of a mixt colour to shew the mixture of Justice and Mercy which are then most excellent when they are well tempered together Justice without mercy is Wormwood and bitternesse and Mercy without Justice is of two soft a temper for Government For a Magistrate must have two hands Plectentem Amplectentem The Next thing is a Bible a Booke that contains the holy Scriptures in which you have the honour and happinesse to be well versed This is the Book of life consisting of two Testaments the Old and New In the first we have Christum velatum Christ in Types shadows and Figures in the latter we have Christum revelatum Christ revealed This Book carries in it the Grounds of the true Christian Protestant Religion it s a Book of Books it contains in it both Precepts and Examples for good Government Alexander so highly valued the Books of his Master Aristotle and other great Princes other Books that they have laid them every night under their Pillows These are all but legends and Romances to this one Book a Book to be had alwayes in Remembrance I find it said in a part of this Book which I shall desire to read and it is this Deut. 17. And it shall be when he sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdome that he shall write a Copy of this Law in a Book out of that which is before the Priests and the Levites And it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord God and to keep all the words of his Law and those Statutes to do them That his heart be not lifted up above his Brethren and that he turn not aside from the Commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end he may prolong his dayes in his Kingdom he and his Children in the midst of Israel The next thing that I am to offer to your Highnesse is a Scepter not unlike a Staffe for you are to be a staffe to the weak and poor It s of antient use in this kind its said in Scripture in reference to Judah the Royall Tribe That the Scepter shall not depart from Judah It was of like use in other Kingdoms and Governments Homer the Prince of the Greek Poets calls Kings and Princes Scepterbearers The last thing is a sword not a military but a civill sword a sword rather for defence then offence Not to defend your self only but others also This Sword is an embleme of Justice The noble Lord Talbot in Henry the VI Time wrote upon his Sword Ego sum Talboti propter occidendum inimicos meos This Gallant Lord was a better Souldier then a Critiek If I might presume to fix a Motto upon this Sword it should be this Ego sum Domini Protectoris ad protegendum populum meum I say this Sword is an Embleme of Justice and is to be used as King Solomon used his for the discovery of the truth in points of Justice I may say of this sword as King David said of Goliahs sword There is none like this Justice is the proper virtue of the imperiall Throne and by Justice the Thrones of Kings and Princes are established Justice is a Royal virtue which as one saith of it doth imploy the other three Cardinall virtues in her service 1. Wisdom to discern the nocent the innocent 2. Fortitude to prosecute and execute 3. Temperance so to carry Justice that passion be no ingredient and that it be without confusion or precipitation You have given ample testimony in all these particulars so that this Sword in your hand will be a right sword of justice attended with Wisdom Fortitude and Temperance When you have all these together What a comely and glorious sight is it to behold A Lord Protector in a Purple Robe with a Scepter in his hand a Sword of Justice girt about him and his eyes fixt upon the Bible Long may you prosperously enjoy them all to your own comfort and the comfort of the people of these three Nations His Highnes standing thus adorned in princely State according to his merit and dignity looking up unto the Throne of the most High who is Prince of Princes and in whom is all his confidence Mr. Manton by prayer recommended his Highnesse the Parliament the councill his Highnesse forces by Sea and Land the whole Government and People of these three Nations to the blessing and protection of God Almighty After this the people giving severall great shouts and the trumpets sounding his Highnesse sat down in the Chair of State holding the Scepter in his hand At the right Elbow by his Highnesse Chair sate his Excellency the Lord Ambassadour extraordinary of France at the left his Excellency the Lord Ambassadour extraordinary of the states Generall of the Vnited Provinces On the right side of the chair stood the Earle of Warwick bearing the Sword and on the left side the Lord Major of London with the City Sword Near to his Highnesse stood the most noble Lord the Lord Richard Cromwell his excellency the Lord Fleetwood Lord deputy of Ireland the Right honourable the Lord Cleypool Master of his Highnesse Horse his Highnesse councill and all the officers of State attending There stood also upon the lower descent near the Earle of Warwick the Lord Viscount Lisle and Generall Montague and on the
inheritance XIIII The King of Denmark is to restore also to the King of Sweden all such places he took from him in this War and the three ships taken from the Swedish in the Sound are to be prized and the value thereof is to be restored to the Crown of Sweden XV The King of Denmarke is to resign to the King of Sweden all the claims which he pretends to any place in the Island Rugen XVI The King of Denmark is to be reconciled with the Duke of Hostein upon such tearmes as may stand with justice and equity and make an agreement answerably XVII The Forts and castles taken by either party are to be restored but not any Artillery and Amunition and the Subjects of Denmarke are to carry the Swedish Artillery to such places as the King of Sweden shall appoint XVIII Count Vlefield is to be restored to his goods and all his Revenues and charges shall be paid back from that time as the Commissioners shall determine His Lady and Mother in Law shall have liberty to dwell in Denmark where they please the Fees which he and his Son had as Hursholm Moene Hellingen and St Johns Cloyster he is to enjoy again according to the priviledge which they had there and his Lady also is to be restored to her due title of Honor XIX The published Minifestor of the King of Denmark is to be revoked and neither printed nor sold any more XX The King of Denmark is to let the King of Sweden have 2000 Horse and 2000 Foot Whitehall March 12. This afternoon the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Councill of the City of London came hither in a Body to attend his Highnesse as also the Commanders and Officers of the Army And being admitted to his presence his Highnesse was pleased in a Speech at large to represent unto them the danger wherein they of the whole City and the whole Nation were involved at present by reason of the new designes of the old Enemy Charls Stuart and his confederates abroad and his party here at home who have been at work secretly to imbroil the nation again in Blood as soon as he should be able to make his intended invasion His Highness also told them that he knew this to be true That he knew it by Letters of theirs intercepted by certain intelligence from abroad of their proceedings and by information from the mouths of such persons as had been engaged to act with them He acquainted them likewise that the Lord of Ormond whom some now call the Duke of Ormond in person had been lately here for three weekes together being come over on purpose to promote the design by encouraging and engaging as many as he could in and about this City and that he went away again on Tuesday last Also in order to this invasion Charls Stuart was waiting in Flanders having about eight thousand Men quartered in severall places near the water side as at Brugges Brussells Ostend c. And that two and twenty hired Ships were in readinesse to transport them waiting only for the opportunity of some darke night to slip by our Fleet which they may the more easily perform ours being ships of great burthen drawing much water and so not able to ride upon the Flats And therefore seeing a reall danger so near at hand and that the peace and safety of the City and the whole Nation is Highly concerned in it he desired the Citizens might be sensible of it and how much it behoves them to provide for their own and the Nations security And to that end his Highnesse recommended to the Lord Major and the Body of the City the setling of their Militia and that it might be setled in the hands of Pious and sober men well affected to the present Government and such as are free from discontent and faction persons that may carry on the worke with alacrity and discretion to put the City in a posture of defence that they may be in a condition to suppresse tumults and insurrections designed by the Enemies of our Peace and Prosperity Many other particulars his Highnesse insided on to give them an account of the present state of affairs and of divers past transactions but having no notes to help my memory and being afraid lest I may already have faln short in relating the Heads of what was more copiously and much better spoken I have only this to adde That the citizens expressed much cheerfulnesse in the presence of his Highnesse and departed with very great satisfaction Whitehall March 27. These following persons having been lately presented from the City to his Highnesse and the Councill to be added to the Committee of the Militia in London they are accordingly approved Sir Thomas Foot Knight William Thomson Walter Bigge Iohn Frederick Tempest Milner Thomas Chaundler Aldermen Charls Lloyd Therphilus Biddulph William Gower Esquires Mr. Maurice Gethin Mr. Thomas Steynes Mr. Iames Edwards This day a Presentation was made of the following Addresses to his Highness and it was presented by the hand of the noble Lord the Lord Charls Fleetwood attended by the Officers of the Army To his Highnesse the Lord Protector of the Common wealth of England Scotland and Ireland c. The Humble Addresse of the Officers of your Highnesse Army WE being deeply sensible of the continuall dangers from the common enemy that have attended your Highness person and of the immense weight of businesse for the good of the Nation that hath lain and still lieth upon you together with the great opposition from severall sorts of enemies that you have met with ever since you were pleased to undertake the Government for the procuring the quiet and promoting the prosperity of this Common-wealth do judge it our duty to contribute as much as in us lyeth to strengthen your Highnesse hands and obviate the designes of your enemies And therefore do as one Man with plainnesse and sincerity of heart declare unto your Highnesse That notwithstanding the base Calumnies and Lies your and our enemies have cast upon us and dispersed throughout the whole Nation That your Army is divided and much of it from your self We doe remain through the mercy of God firmly united one to another and all of us to your Highnesse as our Generall and Chief Magistrate and hope that God hath so in love and faithfulness cemented us together as that neither the subtilty of Satan nor the malice of crafty and ill-affected men shall be able to severe us And we make it our earnest and humble request to your Highnesse That as a mighty man strengthned by the Lord you will run and not be weary in that race God hath set you in till it please the Lord you have setled the great ends of all our former engagements our civill and spirituall liberty which we hope is already in a good measure well provided for by The Humble Petition and advice And in all your actings tending thereunto We doe freely and heartily engage
the Lord strengthning us to stand by your Highnesse with our lives and shall not be wanting to improve our interest with the Lord for his gracious and mighty assistance with you in the further prosecution of the great work he hath called you to Charls Fleetwood William Goffe John Barkestead Howard Richard Ingoldsby Thomas Pride James Berry Thomas Cooper Philip Twisleton Edward Grosvener John Disbrow Henry Ingoldsby Thomas Talbot George Sedascue Thomas Kelsey Tobias Bridge John Nelthorpe William Bâ—teler Hezekiah Haynes Edward Whalley John Clarke Thomas Sadler Ralph Cobbet Edward Salmon John Mill William Stane Henry Whalley Thomas Margetts By the Committee for the affairs of the poor Protestants in the Valleyes of Piedmont THe All wise and Holy God whose wayes of Providence are alwayes 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 irreconcileable Enmity between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent which was visible betimes in the Blood shed 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 evill 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 World lasteth In which Cause and Quarrell the Lord hath very many glorious ends But scarcely have any sort of the Churches Enemies more clearly followed the pernitious wayes of Cain herein than hath the Anti-Christian Faction of Rome done that Mother of Harlots and abominations whose garments are died red with the blood of Saints which they have alwayes 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 witnesse against them though they did it in sack-cloth and were slain for it Among those chosen and faithfull Witnesses the Lord seemed very signally to have raised up those Christians who though dispersed in divers Countreyes 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 Apostacies 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 Shepheard of the sheep hath made their blood thus shed to become a constant seed of faithfull 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 in the Valleyes of Piedmont of whose tragicall sufferings we have not long since heard and have drawn forth our bowels to them whereof a very faithfull 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 hath been dispersed in the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Poland whose sufferings together with the Lords signall 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 cryes importuning the Christian Bowells 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 somtimes flourishing churches where by degrees worn out by the constant underminings and open out rages 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 only to Ministers but to others yea even to women and young Children whose heads they cut off and them at their dead mothers breasts Nay their rage brake out not only 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 publick scorn But the chief Eye sore and object of their Fury was the City of Lesna which after plundering and murthering all whom they found therein they burned to ashes and laid in rubbish only 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 themselve by flight and are now wandring up and down in Silesia the Marguifate of Brandenburg Lusatia and Hungary poor destitute afflicted and naked His Highness and the Councill 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 here with published thereby to stirr up the Lords people in these Nations to put on bowels of mercies toward these their exiled and afflicted brethren refreshing their hearts by your love and the tokens of it in a cheerfull and liberall supply which will not only 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 considerng the present freedome 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 bountifull 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