Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	death_n	jesus_n	sin_n	17,300	5	4.7228	4	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

heart I speake it in the presence of Almighty God before whom I stand that there is not so much as a displeasing thought in mee arising to any creature I thanke God I may say truly and my Conscience beares me witnesse that in all my services since I have had the honour to serve his Majesty in any employment I never had any thing in my heart but the joynt and individuall prosperity of King and People if it have been my hap to be misconstrued it is the common portion of us all while we are in this life the righteous judgement is hereafter here we are subject to error and apt to be misjudged one of another there is one thing I desire to cleere my selfe of and I am very confident I speake it with so much clearenesse that I hope I shall have your Christian charity in the beliefe of it I did alwaies ever thinke the Parliaments of England were the happiest Constitutions that any Kingdome or any Nation lived under and under God the meanes of making King and People happy so far have I been from being against Parliaments for my death I here acquit all the world and pray God heartily to forgive them and in particular my Lord Primate I am very glad that his Majesty is pleased to conceive me not meriting so severe and heavy a punishment as the utmost execution of this sentence I am very glad and infinitely rejoyce in this mercy of his and beseech God to turne it to him that he may finde mercy when he hath most need of it I wish this Kingdome all the prosperity and happinesse in the world I did it living and now dying it is my wish I doe now professe it from my heart and doe most humbly recommend it unto every man here and wish every man to lay his hand upon his heart and consider seriously whether the beginning of the happinesse of a People should bee written in letters of Blood I feare you are in a wrong way and I desire Almighty God that no one drop of my Blood may rise up in judgement against you My Lord I professe my selfe a true and obedient Son to the Church of England to that Church wherein I was borne and wherein I was bred prosperity and happinesse be ever to it and whereas it hath been said that I have enclin'd to Popery if it be an Objection worth answering let me say truly that from the time since I was one and twenty yeares of age till this houre now going upon 49. I never had thought in my heart to doubt of the truth of my Religion in England and never any had the boldnesse to suggest to me the contrary to the best of my remembrance and so being reconciled to the mercies of Christ Iesus my Saviour into whose bosome I hope shortly to be gather'd to those eternall happinesses that shall never have end I desire heartily the forgivenesse of every man both for any rash or unadvised word or deed and desire your Prayers And so my Lords farewell farewell all the things of this world LORD strengthen my faith give me confidence and assurance in the merits of Christ Iesus I desire you that you would be silent and joyne in Prayers with me and I trust in GOD that we shall all meet and live eternally in Heaven there to receive the accomplishment of all happinesse where every teare shall be wiped from our eyes and every sad thought from our hearts And so God blesse this Kingdome and Iesus have mercy upon my Soule THen turning himselfe about he saluted all the Noblemen and tooke a solemne leave of all considerable persons on the Scaffold giving them his hand And after that he said Gentlemen I would say my prayers and I intreat you all to pray with me and for me then his Chaplaine laid the booke of Common prayer upon the Chaire before him as he kneeled down on which he prayed almost a quarter of an houre then he prayed as long or longer without a booke and ended with the Lords prayer then standing up he spies his brother Sir George Wentworth and calls him to him and saith brother wee must part remember me to my sister and to my wife and carry my blessing to my eldest Son and charge him from mee that he feare God and continue an obedient Sonne of the Church of England and that he should approve himselfe a faithfull subject to the King and tell him that he should not have any private grudge or revenge towards any concerning me and bid him beware that he meddle not with Church livings for that will prove a moath and canker to him in his estate and wish him to content himselfe to be a servant to his Countrey as a Justice of peace in his County and not aiming at higher preferments carry my blessing also to my daughters Anne and Arrabella charge them to feare and serve God and he will blesse them not forgetting my little Infant that yet knowes neither good nor evill and cannot speake for it selfe God speake for it and blesse it then said he now I have nigh done one stroke will make my wife husbandlesse my deare children fatherlesse and my poore servants masterlesse and seperate mee from my deare brother and all my friends but let God be to you and them all in all After that going to take off his dublet and to make himselfe unready he said I thanke God I am no more afraid of death nor daunted with any discouragements rising from any feares but doe as chearefully put off my dublet at this time as ever I did when I went to bed Then he put off his dublet and wound up his haire with his hands and put on a white Cap. Then he called Where is the man that should doe this last office meaning the Executioner call him to mee When he came and askt him forgivenesse he told him hee forgave him and all the world Then kneeling downe by the block he went to prayer again himselfe the Bishop of Armach kneeling on the one side and the Minister on the other to the which Minister after prayer he turned himselfe and spoke some few words softly having his hands lifted up this Minister closed his hands with his then bowing himselfe to the earth to lay his head on the block he told the Executioner that he would first lay downe his head to try the fitnesse of the block and take it up againe before he would lay it downe for good and all and so hee did and before he laid it downe againe he told the Executioner that he would give him warning when to strike by stretching forth his hands and then laid down his neck on the block stretching out his hands the Executioner strucke off his head at one blow then took the head up in his hands and shewed it to all the people and said God save the King FINIS