Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	day_n	great_a	word_n	11,193	5	3.8155	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93942	The last speeches of Thomas Wentworth, late Earle of Strafford, and deputy of Ireland The one in the Tovver, the other on the scaffold on Tower-Hill, May the twelfth. 1641. Together with his deportment before and at the end of his execution.	Strafford, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of, 1593-1641.	1641 (1641)	Wing S5785B; ESTC R231586	7,448	12

forgivenesse It is a Maxime in Philosophy that ambitious men can be never good Counsellors 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 be to you all an happy example For Ambition devoureth gold and drinketh blood and climbeth so high by other mens heads that at the length in the fall it breaketh its owne 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 we but meere Vapours which in a serene Element ascend high and upon an instant like Smoake vanish into nothing or like ships without Pilots tost up and downe upon the Seas by contrary winds and tempests But the good husbandman thinkes better of those eares of Corne which bow down and grow crooked than those which are straight and upright because he is assured to finde more store of Grain 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 pain 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 speciall gifts both of Nature and Fortune what have all these profited me 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 forced immaturely to fall I now could wish but that utinam is too late that God with his outward goodnesse towards me 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 moisten them with the Waves I soared too high and too neare the Sun by which they being melted I aiming 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 sand have now setled my hopes upon the Rock my Saviour by whose only 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 called 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 dry and miraculous passage and Pharaoh and his hoast a watry Sepulchre Belshazzer feasted his Princes and Prostitutes who drunke healths in the Vessels 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 go on a great while in their own devices but in the end it proves their own ruine and destruction never suffering them to effect their desired purposes therefore let none presume upon his power glory in his greatnesse or be 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 wisdome are the next neighbours to folly There can be 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 be no greater folly in man than by much Travell to encrease his goods and pamper his body and in the interim with vain delights and pleasures to lose his soul It is a great folly in any man to attempt a bad beginning in hope of 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 aiming at any one man in particular but speaking for all in generall How long will you Iudges be 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 twelve a clock 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 the Souldiers of the City of London and the Hamlets of the Tower on each side as he passed to the Scaffold before marched the Marshals 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 black Cloth with divers others in the same habit which were his attendants then the Lord Bishop of Armagh and other good Divines with the Sheriffes of London and divers honourable personages 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 first Speech on the Scaffold MY Lord Primate of Ireland and my Lords and the rest of these Gentlemen it is a very great comfort to me to have your Lordship by mee this day in regard I have been knowne to you a long time I should be very glad to obtain so much silence as to be heard a few words but I doubt I shall not my Lord I come hither by the good will and pleasure of Almighty God to pay that last debt I owe to sin which is death and by the blessing of that God to rise again through the merits of Christ Jesus to eternall glory I wish I had been private that I might have been heard My Lord if I might bee so much beholding to you that I might use a few words I should take it for a very great curtesie My Lord I come hither to submit to that judgement which hath past against me I doe it with a very quiet and contented minde I doe freely forgive all the world a forgivenesse that is not spoken from teeth outward as they say but from the