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A51278 A sermon preach'd at the Hague, at the funeral of the late Prince of Orange (father to his present Majesty King William III.) who died in the year 1650. wherein the life and actions of his present Majesty are prophetically foretold. By the learned Mr. Morus. Translated out of French by Daniel la Fite, M.A. rector of Woolavington in Sussex. More, Alexander, 1616-1670.; Lafite, Daniel. 1694 (1694) Wing M2627; ESTC R216378 16,178 31

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A SERMON Preach'd at the HAGVE At the FUNERAL of the Late Prince of Orange Father to his present MAJESTY King WILLIAM III. Who died in the Year 1650. Wherein the Life and Actions of his present Majesty are Prophetically foretold By the Learned Mr. MORUS Translated out of French by Daniel la Fite M. A. Rector of Woolavington in Sussex LONDON Printed by J. D. for Roger Clavel at the Peacock in Fleetstreet MDCXCIV Imprimatur Junii 28. 1694. RA. BARKER ISAIAH XL. 6 7 8. The Voice said Cry And he said What shall I cry All Flesh is Grass and all the Glory thereof is as the Flower of the Field The Grass withereth the Flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it Surely the People is Grass The Grass withereth the Flower fadeth but the Word of our God shall stand for ever THE Heavens declare the Glory of God saith the Prophet and though they have neither Speech nor Language yet for all that is their Voice heard They speak not to him that listens but to him that views them and entertain him much to this purpose Consider well our Beauty and Lustre the Vastness of our Bodies the unerring Stedfastness of our Motions and the Universality of our Influences We have not fram'd our selves we are the Effects of the First Cause the Productions of a Wise and Omnipotent God What the Prophet asserts of the Heavens the same we may say of the Dead and that in a more emphatical and significant manner They declare the Glory of God and the Emptiness and Vanity of Man there is no Speech nor Language with them no nor Motion neither as there is in the Heavenly Bodies yet is their Speech heard and if we hear them not 't is not because they don't speak but because we do not hearken They speak they preach they cry with a Voice intelligible enough even with the dumb Language of their loud and instructive Silence Behold and see to what we are come and whither you are going God who by his Almighty Word spoke us out of the Dust by withdrawing his Breath hath return'd us thither again But above all the Great Dead speak loudest and with a most distinguishing Tone with a Voice like to that of many Waters with a Voice that breaks the Cedars of Lebanon Solomon in his Life-time was both a King and a Preacher he made a Pulpit of his Throne and gave himself the Name of Ecclesiastes that is to say a Preacher But if Solomon was a Preacher when alive all Kings and Princes become such when they die they preach to all the World and the very same thing that he the wisest of Men and happiest of Kings had preached before them Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity which is no other than what is here proclaimed by the Prophet Isaiah I might as well have said Prince Isaiah for he was indeed a Prince of the Blood Royal and yet died as well as the Prophet Amos who as St. Jerome observes was a Cow-herd so that dying as well as living he cried All Flesh is Grass and all the Glory thereof is as the Flower of the Field But alas why is this Text so plain why so convincingly evident and so easy to be understood O that it were a Riddle yet and hard to be apprehended but we have all of us too sensible a Demonstration of this Truth and we can say nothing for the clearing of it which is not much inferiour to the Evidence which our common Disaster gives us thereof Had I a golden Tongue as that famous Bishop of old or were I inspired with the Eloquence of Angels yet should not I be able to say any thing that would come near to the Clearness and Force of the sad Commentary which the Breath of our Nostrils He of whom we said Many Nations shall rest under his Shadow hath given us upon it I shall not need therefore to take so much care to explain the Words as otherwise I should be obliged to do The thing it self speaks his Highness though dead speaks yea cries All Flesh is Grass All Flesh that is without any Exception Men have many Advantages and more especially these two Reason and Speech which distinguish them from all other living Creatures but as for the Flesh there is nothing very extraordinary in it one of the most obscene and impure Beasts the Swine is very like Man as to his inward Parts and as to the outward the most ill-favour'd and ridiculous of all Creatures expresseth him best Our Flesh is of the same Substance and Form with the Creatures we feed upon Wherefore what is Man but as an ancient Philisopher said a little Flegm and Gall put together that is to say a Mixture of Water and Fire or if you will of Flesh and Blood Indeed Man as to his Body is nothing else but mere Flesh and Blood altogether inclin'd to Corruption and nothing but Frailty according to the Hebrew Phrase for when the Jews would speak with Contempt of a thing that is of no Constancy or Solidity they call it Basharvedam Flesh and Blood You must not imagine that our Prophet speaking here of Flesh intends thereby Sin only or the corrupt Nature of Man as our Saviour does when he saith That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh for had this been his meaning he would not have said All Flesh but restrained his Expression to the Flesh of Sinners Therefore when he says All Flesh his meaning is that all Men the most godly and righteous not excepted are subject to Death All the Children of Adam inasmuch as they are made up of Flesh and Blood must return to their Original Dust as well as he But perhaps you will say Of what avail is it then to us that we are the Children of God if we must inevitably submit to Death as well as other Men I answer the New Birth was not design'd to preserve us in the State wherein Adam was created nor to restore us to it because that was but a carnal and perishable Estate but to exalt us to the glorious Condition of the Second Adam who is the Man from Heaven altogether spiritual and immortal Indeed Adam in his State of Innocence was but Flesh and Blood for though he knew no Sin yet was he liable to Sin and consequently to Death which is the Wages of it Flesh and Blood says St. Paul cannot inherit the Kingdom of God What think you doth the Apostle mean here by Flesh and Blood He doth not mean Sin though what he saith be true of Sin too but in this place as appears from the Context is understood Humane Nature consider'd in its Infirmities though otherwise innocent and just as subject to a continual Changeableness to a troublesome Vicissitude of Eating and Drinking of Labour and Rest and to many other Drudgeries and Necessities of Life because in this State it cannot subsist before God no more than Wax before the burning Sun