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cause_n	good_a	great_a	lord_n	5,077	5	3.6205	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61726	The two last speeches of Thomas Wentworth, late Earle of Strafford, and deputy of Ireland the one in the Tower, the other on the scaffold on Tower-Hill, May the 12th, 1641.	Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of, 1593-1641.	1641 (1641)	Wing S5800; ESTC R9625	6,309	11

ambitious men can bee never good Counsellours to Princes the desire of having more is common to great Lords and a desire of Rule a great cause of their Ruine My Lords I am now the hopelesse President may I bee to you all an happy example For Ambition devoureth gold and drinketh bloud and climbeth so high by other mens heads that at the length in the fall it breaketh its own neck therefore it is better to live in humble content than in high care and trouble For more precious is want with honesty than wealth with infamy For what are wee but meere vapours which in a serene Element ascend high and upon an instant like Smoak vanish into nothing or like Ships without Pilots tost up and downe upon the Seas by contrary winds and tempests But the good husbandman thinks better of those eares of Corne which bow downe and grow crooked than those which are streight and upright because he is assured to finde more store of graine in the one than in the other This all men know yet of this how few make use The defect whereof must be now my paine may my suffering prove to others profit For what hath now the favour of my Prince the familiarity with my Peeres the volubility of a tongue the strength of my memory my learning or knowledge my honours or Offices my power and potency my riches and treasure all these the especiall gifts both of Nature and Fortune what have all these profited mee Blessings I acknowledge though by God bestowed upon man yet not all of them together upon many yet by the Divine providence the most of them met in me of which had I made happy use I might still have flourisht who now am forc'd immaturely to fall I now could wish but that utinam is too late that God with his outward goodnesse towards mee had so commixed his inward grace that I had chused the medium path neither inclining to the right hand nor deviating to the left but like Icarus with my waxen wings fearing by too low a flight to moysten them with the Waves I soared too high and too neare the Sunne by which they being melted I ayming at the highest am precipitated to the lowest and am made a wretched prey to the Waters But I who before built my house upon the the sand have now setled my hopes upon the Rock my Saviour by whose onely merits my sole trust is that whatsoever becomes of my body yet in this bosome my soule may be Sanctuaried Nimrod would have built a Tower to reach up to heaven and cald it Babel but God turned it to the confusion of Languages and dissipation of the people Pharaoh kept the Children of Israel in bondage and after having freed them in his great pride would have made them his prey but God gave them a drie and miraculous passage and Pharaoh and his hoast a watrie Sepulcher Belshazzer feasted his Princes and Prostitutes who drunke healths in the Vessells taken from the Temple but the hand of God writ upon the wall Mene Tekel Phoras and that night before morning was both his Kingdome and life taken from him Thus God lets men goe on a great while in their owne devices but in the end it proved their own ruine and destruction never suffering them to effect their desired purposes therefore let none presume upon his power gl●ry in his greatnesse or bee too confident in his riches These things were written for our Instruction of which the living may make use the dying cannot but wit and unfruitfull wisedome are the next neighbours to folly There can bee no greater vanity in the world than to esteeme the world which regardeth no man and to make slight account of God who greatly respecteth all men and there can bee no greater folly in man than by much Travell to increase his goods and pamper his body and in the interim with vaine delights and pleasures to lose his soule It is a great folly in any man to attempt a bad beginning in hope of a good ending and to make that proper to one which was before common to all is meere indiscretion and the beginning of discord which I positively wish may end in this my punishment O how small a proportion of earth will containe my body when my high minde could not be confined within the spacious compasse of two Kingdomes But my houre draweth on and I conclude with the Psalmist not ayming at any one man in particular but speaking for all in generall How long will you Judges bee corrupted how long will yee cease to give true Iudgement c. Blessed is the man that doth not walke in the Councell of the wicked nor stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of the scornfull therefore they shall not stand in the Iudgement nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous c. About the houre of 12. a Clocke the aforesaid Lord of Strafford was conveyed to the Scaffold on Tower-Hill where was a Court of Guard made by the severall Companies of Souldiers of the City of London and the Hamlets of the Tower on each side as he passed to the Scaffold before marched the Marshalls men to make way then the Sheriffes of Londons Officers with their Halberds after them the Kings Guard or warders of the Tower Next came one of his Gentlemen bare headed in mourning Habit the Lord Strafford following him clad in blacke cloath with divers others in the same habit which were his attendance then the Lord Bishop of Armagh and other good Divines with the Sheriffes of London and divers honourable parsonages When he came to the Scaffold he there shewed himselfe on each side in full view to all people and made this short speech with as much alacrity of Spirit as a mortall man could expresse viz. The Earle of Straffords last speech on the Scaffold MY Lord Primate of Ireland and my Lords and the rest of these Gentlemen it is a very great comfort for me to have your Lordship by me this day in regard I have been knowne to you a long time I should be very glad to obtaine so much silence as to bee heard a few words but I doubt I shall not my Lord. I come hither by the good will and pleasure of Almightie God to pay that last debt I owe unto sin which is death and by the blessing of that God to rise again through the merits of Christ Jesus to eternall glorie And hee being disturbed by the people hee said What is the matter and sate downe in a chaire some replyed The Souldiers kept most stir If they said he would be quiet all the rest would be quiet I wish I had been private that I might have beene heard my Lord if I might be so much beholding to you that I might use a few words I should ●ake it for a very great courtesie my Lord I come hither to submit to that judgement which hath past against me I

The two last Speeches of Thomas Wentworth late Earle of Strafford and Deputy of Jreland The one in the Tower the other on the Scaffold on Tower-hill May the 12th 1641. LONDON Printed for Francis Coules 1641. His speech in the Tower to the Lords before he went to execution RIght Honourable and the rest you are now come to convey mee to my death I am willing to dye which is a thing no more than all our Predecessors have done and a debt that our Posteritie must in their due time discharge which since it can be no way avoyded it ought the lesse to be feared for that which is common to all ought not to be intollerable to any It is the Law of Nature the tribute of the flesh a remedy from all worldly cares and troubles and to the truly penitent a perfect path to blessednesse And there is but one death though severall wayes unto it mine is not naturall but enforced by the Law and Justice it hath beene sayd that the Lawes vex only the meaner sort of people but the mightie are able to withstand them it is not so with me for to the Law I submit my selfe and confesse that I receive nothing but justice for hee that politikely intendeth good to a Common-weale may be called a just man but hee that practiseth either for his owne profit or any other sinister ends may be well termed a delinquent person neither is delay in punishment any privilege for pardon And moreover I ingenuously confesse with Cicero That the death of the bad is the safetie of the good that be alive Let no man trust eyther in the favour of his Prince the friendship and consanguinity of his Peeres muchlesse in his owne wisdome and knowledge of which I ingenuously confesse I have beene too confident Kings as they are men before God so they are Gods before men and I may say with a great man once in this Kingdome Had I strived to obey my God as faithfully as I sought to honour my King diligently J had stood and not fallen Most happie and fortunate is that Prince who is as much for his justice feared as for his goodnesse beloved For the greater that Princes are in power above other the more they ought in vertue to excell other and such is the royall Soveraigne whom I late served For my Peeres the correspondence that I had with them during my prosperitie was to mee very delightfull and pleasing and here they have commiserated my ruine I have plentifully found who for the most generous of them I may boldly say though they have detested the fact yet they have pitied the person delinquent the first in their loyaltie the last in their charitie ingenuously confessing that never any subject or peere of my rank had ever that help of Counsell that benefit of time or a more free and legall tryall than I have had in the like whereof none of my precessors hath had so much favour from his prince so much sufferance from the people in which I comprehend the understanding Commons not the many headed moster Multitude But I have offended am sentenced and must now suffer And for my too much confidence in my supposed wisdom and knowledge therein have beene the most deceived For hee is wise to himselfe that knowes by others faults to correct his owne offences to be truly wise is to be Secretaries to our selves for it is meere folly to reveale our intimate thoughts to strangers wisdome is the most precious Gem with which the mind can be adorned and learning the most famous thing for which a man ought to bee esteemed and true wisdome teacheth us to doe well as to speake well in the first I have failed for the wisdome of man is foolishnesse with God For knowledge it is a thing indifferent both to good and evil but the best knowledge is for a man to know himselfe hee that doth so shal esteeme of himselfe but little for hee considereth from whence he came and wherto he must go he regardeth not the vaine pleasures of this life hee exalteth God and strives to live in his feare but he that knoweth not himselfe is wilful in his owne wayes unprofitable in his life unfortunate in his death and so am I. But the reason why I sought to attaine unto it was this I have read that he that knoweth not that which he ought to know is a Bruit beast amongst men hee that knoweth more than hee ought to know is a man amongst beasts but hee that knoweth all that may be knowne is a God amongst men To this I much aspired in this I much failed Vanitie of vanities all is but vanitie I have he●rd the people clamour and cry our saying That through my occasion the times are bad I wish that when I am dead they may prove better most true it is that there is at this time a great storme impending God in his mercie avert it And since it is my particular lot like Jonah to bee cast into the sea I shall think my life well spent to appease Gods wrath and satisfie the peoples malice O what is eloquence more than aire fashioned with an articulate and distinct sound when it is a speciall vertue to speake little and well and silence is oft the best oratorie for fooles in their dumbnesse may be accounted wise It hath power to make a good matter seeme bad and a bad cause appeare good but mine was to mee unprofitable and like the Cypresse trees which are great and tall but altogether without fruit What is honour but the first step to disquietnesse and power is still waited on by envie neither hath it any privilege against infamie It is held to be the chiefe part of honor for a man to joyne to his office and calling curtesie and affabilitie commiseration and pitie for thereby he draweth to him with a kind of compulsion the hearts of the multitude But that was the least part of my study which now makes me call to mind that the greater the persons are in authority the sooner they are catcht in any delinquencie and their smallest crimes are thought to bee capitall the smallest spot seemes great in the finnest linnen and the least flaw is soonest found in the richest Diamond But high and noble spirits finding themselves wounded grieve not so much at their owne paine and perplexitie as at the derision and scofs of their enemy but for mine owne part though I might have many in my life I hope to finde none in my death Amongst other things which pollute and contaminate the mindes of great spirits there is none more heinons than Ambition which is seldome unaccompanyed with Avarice Such to possesse their ends care not to violate the Lawes of Religion and Reason and to breake the bonds of Modesty and equity with the nearest tyes of Consanguinity and Amity of which as I have beene guilty so I crave at Gods hands forgivenesse It is a Maxime in Philosophy that