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A87831
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A relation of the distressed state of the church of Christ professing the protestant religion in the great dukedom of Lithuania, presented to the view of all compassionate Christians.
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Krainski, John de Kraino.
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1661
(1661)
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Wing K750B; ESTC R227274
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4,605
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10
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A RELATION OF THE DISTRESSED STATE OF THE CHURCH of CHRIST PROFESSING The Protestant Religion in the Great Dukedom of LITHVANIA Presented to the view of all Compassionate Christians PSAL. XLI 1 2. Blessed is he that considereth the Poor the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive and he shall be blessed upon the Earth and thou wilt not deliver him into the Will of his Enemies LAMENT III. 52 53 54. Mine Enemies chased me sore like a Bird without cause They have cut off my life in the Dungeon and cast a Stone upon me Waters flowed over mine Head then I said I am cut off LONDON Printed in the Year of our Salvation 1661. Lament I. 16. For these things I weep mine Eye mine Eye runneth down with water because the Comforter that should relieve my Soul is far from me my Children are desolate because the Enemy prevailed They have heard that I sigh there is none to comfort me all mine Enemies have heard of my trouble and they are glad c. Ibid. v. 21. A Relation of the Distressed State of the Church of Christ professing the Protestant Religion in the Great Dukedom of Lithuania Presented to the view of all Compassionate Christians THE fatal and Bloody Tragedy which with a great deal of Confusion hath been acted on the Theatre of Europe near upon fourty years or upwards having dashed most potent Kingdoms Nations and Provinces one against another hath at last with more Severity because later reached our Sarmatian Climate and therein that most flourishing Kingdom of Poland but especially the Great Dukedom of Lithuania and the Provinces belonging thereunto wherein it hath so ruined and destroyed many magnificent and populous Cities lesser Towns and Villages without number that there are not so much as any Marks left where they stood before This is now the twelfth year since the highest and most righteous Judg of all unrighteous Nations having banished Peace from our Countrey hath in his fierce anger called for many perfidious cruel swift and mighty Nations to execute his Judgments against us And these not having been in the least provoked by Us but onely thirsting after our Fortunes and Blood have washed their cruel hands therein and are not satisfied therewith but to the spoiling of the Goods have added most exquisite Torments upon the Bodies of the true Professours of Christianity In the Year 1648. when the first Rebellion of the Cossacks broke forth to whom the Tartarians readily did associate themselves the Nobility was sought out with much diligence by the furious Rebels to be slaughtered and all such as were not of the Greek Religion were most ignominiously put to death without any distinction where were many numerous Congregations of the Reformed Protestants whose Ministers were not spared also And the Cruelty of the furious Cossacks was so barbarous that the Tartars themselves though their Associates would not be guilty of so much Innocent Blood but compassionately did rescue as many as they could out of their hands Many had their Skins pulled over their Ears whilest they were alive Others had their Hands and Feet cut off Some had their Bowels taken out alive Others had their Shin-bones bored thorough To some they poured melted Lead in at the Wounds which they made in their Heads or Bodies Their Eyes were plucked out there is no number of those that were hanged And it was accounted a great Mercy if any had his Head cut off with a Sword or if they were sent away as perpetual Slâ—ves to the Turk Poor Parents and Husbands were forced to look on whilest their Wives and Daughters were ravished This was the miserable Condition of our Countrey and Church for several years together during the Civil Wars But afterwards when we all begun to hope for better things there fell a new and more strange Calamity upon us when we were almost consumed before For the perfidious Moscovâ—te having taken notice of the distraction and devastation which by the just Hand of God befell us and that the strength of Lithuania was by continual Intestine Wars decayed he presently took an opportunity to invade it and to that effect having found out some Pretenses he came with an Army of two hundred thousand men and associated to himself sixty thousand of the Rebellious Cossacks who carried all before them like a Flood spoiling burning destroying all that they met with sacking the strong Holds and Cities not leaving one Corner in all Lithuania unsearched Never was greater Tyrannie committed in those Parts before There was no regard of Tears and Lamentations no Pity shewed to yielding Persons all without discretion were cut to pieces The common Multitude were slaughtered out of hand but the Gentry and Nobility were carried away and upon deliberation were either hanged or burnt alive Every Corner being filled with Massacres made the Blood run like Streams through the Streets of Towns and Cities But the Condition of the Ministers of Christ was most miserable for as many as were taken were with moâ—◠〈◊〉 â—â—â—ments put to several kinds of death Adrian Chylinsky a man most conspicuous both for his old Age as also for his Piety and Learning whereby he deserved eminently of the Church of Christ being surprised at his own house had his Hands and Legs tyed together and then rosted alive leisurely by degrees there being but some Chips and Straw gathered about him Two of the same Name a Father and a Son called Smolsky both Ministers of Christ near Vilna the chiefest City in Lithuania had their Heads most cruelly sawed off with a Sickle Another Minister in a Town called Holowozyn whose Name was Slawinskie had a new Torment put upon him for they cut him by pieces so long as he lived Many other Ministers were amongst the high Mountains exposed bound and naked to the Snow and extream cold Air which made their noble Souls forsake their miserable Tabernacles And by this kind of death this last Winter there were destroyed above fifteen hundred innocent Souls who seeking for shelter were in their flight over-taken Those that were most healthy or strong were sent away to be made Slaves but others were either flay'd alive or cut into pieces The number of those that were thus miserably put to death as also the several kinds of Torments which poor innocent Creatures were put to no History can describe In this Juncture of Affairs all the Ministâ—rs of Christ were forced to forsake their Dwelling-places And there is above fourty of whom it is not known what kind of death they suffered but that they are dead is certain because they are not found nor were they carried into Captivity The Churches for the most part as far as the Enemy could reach were destroyed by Fire All the Bells were carried away so that there are but few left in the whole Dukedom The desolate Fields and Water onely were left as Witnesses of the insolency of a barbarous Enemy
for all Dwelling-places and Woods were pulled and cut down and burnt to Ashes One would think that the Land had been by this time chastised sufficiently and that the sharp Rod of our Correction should have been broken but God was not yet pleased to put a period to our Calamities for every year our Countrey had a New Enemy raised upon it and so that little which the former had left the succeeding Enemy devoured For in the year 1655 the Multitude of our Enemies was augmented by the coming of the Swede whose Armies by reason of the vicinity of these three Provinces Borussia Curland and Liefland which they had in their power have for the space of five years afflicted our Countrey also And without any respect of the Protestant Religion they used uâ— as Enemâ—es and by their coming into the Countrey they made us lyable to be more hated by those of the Roman Religion then before although after that all the Polisâ— Armies had forsaken their King and that His Sacred Royal Majesty had with drawn himself out of His Kingdom by reason of the Power of the Enemâ—â—s who pressed all places and being absent for a very long time in Siâ—â—sia yet the Lithuanian Churches all that time remained still constant and faithful to their Gracious King All this came upon us undoubtedly because of the Sins of our Country yet the Wrath of God did still burn against us for a little while after He did send another Enemy out of another Corner to wit the Prince of â—ransylvania in whose Army besides the Hungarians and Transylvanians there were Mâ—ldavians Valachians Servians and other Eastern Barbarous Nations who came with great hopes that they should be enriched with our Fortunes and Goods This brought a new Calamity upon that which remained for they made havock of all wasted and destroyed all without distinction The Churches that remained they robbed the Houses rifled and burnt the People driven into Bâ—nishment and those that could not fly were murthered It cannot be sufficiently lamented much less uttered what in such long continuance of our Troubles amongst so many Eâ—stern Western Northern and other Enemies our Native Country the Church and every Mâ—mber thereof have suffered The dead and the unborn were then accounted blessed the weaker Sex was reputed as the most Infortunate For we have seen many Illustrious and Nâ—ble Families so exhausted and brought to extremitie that they have not had Bread to eat We have seen Noble Men and Matrons Virgins and Children of great Parentage mancipated under the pleasure and servitude of the Muscovians Tartarians Cossacks and others under which both they and many Ministers of the Gospel to this day do groan heavily In consideration of those Extremitis which indeed are extraordinary we cannot but adore the just Judgments of God thus poured upon us by reason of our Sins and deplore our sad condition and the more by reason of the small hopes of Restitution or deliverance from such a Devastation For though we are brought very low already having been made subject to many Wastings great Terrours and Troubles as having had Death before our Eyes continually yet there is still matter of new Troubles at home especially to those that desire to serve God in simplicity and purity to this particularly one Calamity followeth another as the Waves in a tempestuous Sea come one upon another Our very Neighbours do hate and persecute the Remnant of us still with as much eagerness as our foreign Enemies did they deprive us of our Churches yet remaining those Lands which were given for the maintainance of Ministers and Scholes they give away as if they had been their own our Ministers are banished and such as remain are beaten and misused the Threatnings of our total Exilement are encreased In a word all the Reformed Protestans are accounted as the Off-scouring of the World and the original cause of all the Troubles which are hitherto befallen to the Country Hence it is that they are hated abused threatned more and more and whatsoever may be found odious amongst men all that is put upon them for to make their calamities the greater We do not question but that all that shall read or hear of these things and have the least spark of Christian Charitie left in their Hearts or take to heart the affliction of Joseph will take Compassion on us being affected with the truth of that Worship Doctrine and Godliness which did shine amongst us even in the midst of our Troubles For our parts we have no other recourse but to the Goodness of our God and the sympathie of the Members of his Church and therefore following the Practise of the Apostles of Christ and the Example of the Churches in the Palatinate Bohemia and others which being in the same condition some few years ago implored the aid of their fellow-Members of the Reformed-Protestant Church we do likewise make our recourse to your Goodness and Charitie For we are perswaded that God hath in these Times made these Kingdoms and Churches more happy and flourishing then others that they might be a place for refuge and a Port of safety for those that suffer Ship-wrack for the Name of Jesus elsewhere Look therefore we beseech you upon us as Objects of Pitie and for the Love of God for the sacred bonds of unity in Christ Jesus stretch forth your hands that the Vine-yard of the Lord may not be utterly destroyed Send suitable comforts to those that are comfortless strengthen the hands of the feeble support the weak supply the wants of the needy with your liberality not doubting but that the Lord who is the rewarder of all good deeds and who takes all the works of Charitie bestowed upon the Members of his Militant Church as if they had been bestowed upon himself will be your sufficient reward and at the Great day of Accounts will put you in minde of such Works for your eternal comfort These are the prayers and desires of those who in the name of all the Lithuanian Churches have sent their Messenger to you who sollicits this in their Name as having been an Eye-witness in many places of their distressed condition and partaker of their Evils John de Kraino Krainski Minister of God's Word and the Messenger of the Churches