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Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93951	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 S5800aA; ESTC R230021	8,086	12

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. New revised by the perfectest Coppy with some Additions which was formerly omitted with his private prayer or ejaculations to Almighty God 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 predecessors 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 monster 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 heard the people clamour and cry out 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 special vertue to speake little and well and silence is oft the best oratorie for fooles in their dumbnesse may bee 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

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 take it for a very great courtesie 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 the teeth outward as they say but from the heart I speake it in the presence of Almightie God before whom I stand that there is not so much as a displeasing thought in me arising to any creature I thank God I may say truly and my conscience beares mee witnesse that in all my services since I have had the honour to serve his Majestie in any employment I never had any thing in my heart but the joynt and individuall prosperitie of King and people if it have beene my hap to be misconstrued it is the common proportion of us all while we are in this life the righteous judgement is hereafter here we are subject to errour and apt to bee mis-judged one or another there is one thing I desire to cleere my selfe of and I am verie confident I speake it with so much clearnesse that I hope I shall have your Christian charitie in the beleefe of it I did alwayes 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 happie so far have I beene from being against Parliaments for my death J here a quit all the world and pray God heartily to forgive them and in particular my Lord Primate I am verie glad that his Majestie is pleased to conceive mee not meriting so severe and heavie a punishment as the utmost execution of this sentence I am verse glad and infinitely rejoyce in this mercie of his beseech God to turne it to him that hee 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 do most humbly recommend it unto every man here and wish every man to lay his hand upon his heart and consider seriously whither the beginning of the happinesse of a people should be 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 judgment agaynst you My Lord of Armagh I professe my selfe a Protestant and 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 beene sayd 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 nine forty I never had thought in my heart to doubt of the truth of my Religion nor to my best memory durst any ever profer it any kind whatsoever and so being reconciled to the mercies of Christ Iesus my Saviour into whose bosome I hope shortly to bee gathered to enjoy those eternall happinsses that shall never have end I desire hartily the forgivenesse of every man both for any rash or unadvised word or deed and desire your prayers And so my Lords farwel farwell all 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 solent and ioyne in Prayers with me and for me and I trust in God that we shall all meet and live eternally in Heaven there to receive the a complishment of all happines where every teare shall bee wiped from our eyes and every sad thought from our hearts And so God blesse this Kingdom and Iesus have mercy upon my Soule Then turning himselfe about hee saluted all the Noble-men and tooke a solemne leave of all considerable persons on the Scaffold giving them his hand And after that hee sayd Gentlemen I would say my prayers and I entreat you all to pray with me and for me then his Chaplaine layd the booke of Common Prayer upon the chaire before him as hee kneeled downe 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 cals him to him and saith Brother wee must part remember me to my sister and to my wife and carrie my blessing to my eldest for and charge him from me that he feare God and continue an obedient son of the Church of England 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 moth and canker to him in his estate and wish him to content himselfe to be a servant to his Countrey as a Iustice of peace in his Countie and not aiming at higher preferments carrie my blessing also to my daughters Anne and Arabella charge them to feare and serve God and hee 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 separate me 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 doublet and to make himselfe unready he said I thank God I am no more afraid of death nor daunted with any discouragement rising from any feares but doe as cheerfully put off my doublet at this time as ever I did when I went to bed Then he put off his doublet and wound up his haire with his hands and put on a white cap with his haire under it Had the Deputie lived till Friday following which was the 14 day of May there had dyed two Noblemen in the same moneth and the same place though not for the same fact which was the Earle of Caflle Haven ten yeares since Then hee called Where is the man that should doe this last office meaning the Executioner call him to me When he came and askt him forgivenesse hee told him hee forgave him and all the world Then kneeling downe by the block hee went to prayer againe himselfe the Bishop of Armach kneeling on the one side and the Minister on the other to the which Minister after prayer hee 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 hee 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 he did and before hee laid it downe againe he told the Executioner that he would give him warning when to strike by stretching forth his hands and then layd downe his neck on the block stretching out his hands the Executioner struck off his head at one blow then tooke the head up in his hands and shewed it to all the people and said God save the King His private Ejaculations BEhold O my Lord I place my selfe before thine eyes kneeling at the foot step of thy mercy seat begging pardon of thee for the forgivenesse of all my sins and O my good God what sinfull soule can performe this act without the helpe of thy Divine Grace It is thy mercy which now I crave who am at the last period of my life Lord therefore let thy hand of mercy be so fatre stretched out to me that it may reach to the forgivenesse of all my transgressions of what nature condition soever they are or have beene whether they have beene sins to please my selfe or others Heare me O Father of all pitty and compassion and that for Iesus Christs sake who at this time maketh intercession for all true penitents Lord into thy hands I commend and commit my Spirit FINIS