Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	baron_n	earl_n	king_n	15,398	5	3.8090	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12817	Honour and vertue, triumphing over the grave Exemplified in a faire devout life, and death, adorned with the surviving perfections of Edward Lord Stafford, lately deceased; the last baron of that illustrious family: which honour in him ended with as great lustre as the sunne sets within a serene skye. A treatise so written, that it is as well applicative to all of noble extraction, as to him, and wherein are handled all the requisites of honour, together with the greatest morall, and divine vertues, and commended to the practise of the noble prudent reader. By Anth. Stafford his most humble kinsman. This worke is much embelish'd by the addition of many most elegant elegies penned by the most accute wits of these times.	Stafford, Anthony.	1640 (1640)	STC 23125; ESTC S117763	67,272	160

of these two should have the Precedencie but in the end give it to the Gowne in that Good Letters can instructus in the Military Discipline but Armes cannot impart the Knowledge of the Arts I may seeme to some to have dwelt too long on this weighty and necessary Argument of Honour in Generall whose pardon I crave and so proceed in my Method to treate of his Nobilitie by Race who is now my deplored Theam I am utterly void of all insight in Heraldry and therefore can write nothing in this kinde save what I have upon trust but that little I shall deliver shall be back'd with great Authorities That his Ancestors have been Dukes I am confident every man hath heard but how great in Authority and Revenue it may be all men apprehend not I am inform'd by a Knight skilfull and Excellent not only in our English but Forraigne Heraldry also that the Dukes of Buckingham have been so great that Earles have been the Stewards of their Houses and that they have disbursed eight hundred pounds yeerly old Rent in Pensions to Earles Barons Knights and Gentlemen To this worthy Testatour of their Greatnesse I shall yet adde a far greater namely the Right Honorable Henry Earle of Northampton a Lord so omniscient that he seem'd to all learned men living in his time A walking Athens In a speech of his contain'd in a Booke entituled The Arraignment of the Traitours his formall words are these It was a Monke of Henton that seduc'd the late Duke of Buckingham to the Ruine of as great a Name as any Subject in Europe excepting onely the Sirname of a King can demonstrate by which I receive a blemish and all those that descend from him This is enough for mee in that I cannot blazon Coates nor draw Pedigrees and because I am unwilling to disparage some whose Names the Staffords bore in former times and afterwards forsooke them as somwhat too obscure and low for their lofty deeds Wee have all this while dwelt in the Suburbs wee will now enter the Citie and glad our eyes with the splendour of it Imagine all the premises to bee but the Curtain which now being drawne wee will gaze on the Beautifull Piece his Life so pure and innocent to the outward sight in Gods eye who can be justified that what was said of Scipio Nassica may be applyed to him Nihil in vita nisi laudandum aut dixit aut fecit Through his whole Life he never did or spake any thing that was not commendable The first care of his Excellent Parents was to let him know there was a God that made him and they taught him by gesture to acknowledge this Truth ere hee could by speech The erection of his eyes and Hands spake for him ere his Tongue could To learne the Arts and Sciences requires a convenient Ripenesse of Age but it fares not so with Religion which is to be suck'd in with the Mothers or Nurses Milke A Vessell reteines long the sent of that wherewith it is first season'd and therefore hee was taught to name and know his Heavenly Father before his Earthly When he came to have the use of speech hee was instructed every morning with an humble heart and in a submissive phrase to crave the conduct and safeguard of God for that Day and in the same lowly Language to implore his Almighty protection for the ensuing Night Then was hee carried into Gods sacred Temple there to offer up prayers and Vowes due to his Maker True it is that we not only see but handle God in his Creatures but we no where speak univocally and unanimously to him nor hee at all to us but in his Church And that hee might judge of Religion and Goodnesse aright these his solicitous Parents gave him a learned Education for though Learning be not the Adaequate Cause of Vertue that being Assuefaction in Goodnesse yet that it is the Adjuvant all men not Contentious will easily grant Some there be who affirme that Vertue cannot be taught because though the Intellect may be informed of the true forme of Vertue yet the Will by this Instruction cannot be made flexible Experience proving to us that many profoundly Learned are withall damnably Wicked But this falls out by accident when Science meets with a perverse and depraved Nature If we consider Learning in it selfe wee shall finde that though it doe not necessarily engender Vertue yet it moves and enclines the Will to embrace it To this alludes that of Ovid Didicisse fideliter Artes Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros There are many forcible convincing Reasons why a learned man is more apt to follow Vertue then an unlearned Amongst many other I will onely produce four The first is that by studying the Arts and Sciences the thoughts of man are averted from dwelling on corporeall things the ordinary objects of his Affections and by that means the occasions are cut off that usually allure him to be enamour'd on Vice Secondly he who is a curious searcher into the Nature and causes of things judgeth of them aright and esteemes them as they are Hence it comes to passe that he magnifies things truly great and contemnes those equally base and is nothing at all moved with such Events as in the Vulgar beget Terror and Astonishment Thirdly through the Knowledge of things Naturall and Supernaturall hee discernes many causes why wee should adhere to Vertue and detest Vice For hee who understands the Nature and Excellencie of God will desire to be like him and hee who knows that God hath created all things under the Sunne for him will be enflam'd with a divine love towards him and approve himselfe gratefull and serviceable to this his Heavenly Benefactour Likewise hee who espies in the bruite creatures themselves Images of Vertues in some that of Fortitude in others that of Temperancie and Chastitie in all an Instinct and Industry in undergoing those Offices they are made for and which are proper to them will easily be induced to thinke it a shame and dishonour to him if he having the use of Reason and having the stampe of the Deity upon him should be found defective in his Duty Fourthly and lastly Learning layes before us the true Forme of Vertue and furnisheth us with Examples of brave accomplish'd men with the rewards and Glory they purchas'd by their Perfections and on the contrary the ignominious and horrid ends of such as have liv'd and died mancipated to their owne sordid enormous Imperfections the Meditation whereof will render a knowing man an Admirer of Goodnesse and a loather of Wickednesse They who are so obstinate as to reject these Reasons in favour of Good Letters will surely be ore-borne and have their Judgements rectified and reform'd by the Authoritie of great Men who have declared themselves Fautours of Erudition This Example of Alexander subjecting himselfe to bee the Disciple of Aristotle shall bee the Leader

and whither his beames cannot reach thither his warmth extends Though all cannot enjoy the honour of his presence all are sharers in the comfort of his benefits We are not more happy in living than this brave deceased Lord was unfortunate in immaturely dying under so gratious a King diligent in the search after desert and magnificent in rewarding it who in all probability upon a proofe made of his faith and merit might in him have raised his whilome great House to that Height from which Tyranny unmercifully threw it downe I say to the same Height not the same Titles As concerning the immaturity of his Death I willingly acknowledge the suddaine unexpectted deprivation of one so deare and so hopefull must needs be bitter and grievous to all those whom blood friendship or acquaintance had link'd to him Yet ought they not to grieve immoderately the sorrow of a Christian being by Christ himselfe bounded and confin'd Wee may deplore the absence of our departed friends but we must not too much bewayle their deaths because they are with God As not to feele sorrow in sad chances is to want sence so not to beare it with moderation is to lack understanding since it is fit that griefe should rather bewray a tender then a dejected minde The effects of our sorrow must not too long out-live the cause We moysten not the earth with pretious Waters they were distill'd for nobler ends either by their Odour to delight us or by their operation to preserve our health Our Teares are Waters of too high a price to be prodigally powred into the dust of any Graves But we unwisely court sorrow and as a Lover alwaies espyes something in his Mistris that in his opinion exalts her above her Sexe so wee labour to finde out causes for our excessive griefe and to prove our present losse unequall'd though indeed it have many paralells As the light handling of a Nettle makes it sting us but the hard griping of it prevents that harme so wee should not stroke and cherish our griefes but out of Divinity and Humanity compose a probe that may search them to the quicke Hee who heateth an Iron takes it not out by that part which the fire hath enflamed but by that end which remained without Nor should wee take our afflictions by the wrong end but if wee can finde any comfort to arise from them wee should discreetly lay hold on that Hee who comes into a Rosary findes every Rose guarded with innumerable Thorns yet he warily gathers the one without being pricked by the other The most bitter accident hath a graine of sweetnesse and Consolation in it which a wise man extracts and leaves the Gall behind To apply this out of the subitary death of this Noble Gentleman wee may cull many comforts True it is that Death is sayd to kill the old by Maturity and the young by Treachery and that unripe untimely ends are by all extreamly pittied but if we will harken to Reason issuing out of the mouths of the most profound Philosophers she will tell us that brevity of Life is to be preferred before longevity If we will give beliefe to Seneca he will assure us that Nature never bestowed a greater Benefit on man than shortnesse of Life it being so full of Cares Feares Dangers and Miseries that Death is become the Common wish of all men afflicted He who dyes soone should no more complaine than he whose Navigation in a rough troubled sea is quickly ended We account not those the best trees that have withstood the rage of many Winters but those who in the least time have borne the most fruit Not hee who playes longest but sweetliest on an Instrument is to bee Commended Compared with Eternity the longest and the shortest Life differ not Life is not a constant Fountaine but a fickle Floud that quickly rises and as suddainly falls Some have compared life to a Bird in a Childes hand which sometimes flies away before hee can well fasten his hold on it By the vertue of that Organ wherewith wee first behold the shine of the sun by the defect of the same we are brought into the darknesse and shadow of death It is so it is so Hee that built this faire Fabricke would have nothing stable and permanent in it but himselfe This goodly rationall subtle creature Man above the Stars themselves and next to God himselfe in Dignity able to penetrate into the deepest secrets of Nature to observe the motions of the heavens to compasse both heaven and Earth in a thought is onely immortall here below by succession Generation being as restlesse as corruption The mistocles rightly affirmes that no creature is so miserable as Man in that none but he knows the use of life yet when with great studie and industry hee hath attain'd to that knowledge he is by death depriv'd both of life and it together Age brings to us experience in one hand and Death in the other Iust were the teares and sweet was the Humanity saith Pliny of that Royall and youthful * Graecian who wept to thinke that not one of that glorious immense Army hee then commanded should survive one Age Such a gentle commiseration of humane frailty made Anselme thus cry out O durus Casus Heu quid perdit homo quid invenit perdi dit beat itudinem ad quam factus est invenit mortem ad quam factus non est O hard hap Alas What did man lose What did he finde Hee lost the blessednesse to which he was made and found death to which he was not made Shal then the valiant the learned have a harder fate then fools in so soon parting with those Crownes which Mars and Apollo have placed on their heads shall they so suddenly be deprived of the comfort of that faire Fame which with bloud and sweat with fasting and watching they have purchas'd Yes yes Caesar shall never terrifie the World again with his valour nor Cicero charme it with his eloquence The sword of the one and the pen of the other have now with their Lords the same eternall and unprofitable rest Alas alas Mans is as brittle as glasse but not so conserveable As he encreases in growth his life decreases As whether one sleeps or wakes in a ship under saile he is insensibly as it were carried away towards his intended Port so what ever we are doing we unawares sail towards the region of death Time deals with man Arithmetically He first addes to his Beauty and multiplies his Graces and then hee substracts all these and makes a long lasting Division between him and Nature It were strange if we should think wee shall never arrive there whither wee are ever going Plutarch writes of creatures in a certain part of the World which are borne in the morning are in their prime at noon grow aged towards the evening and are dead ere night Had these reasonable soules as wee have