Satisfaction to all our Wishes Treasures Pleasures and Honours without Stint or bound in their Nature Measure or Duration So that we are to understand by the Glory of the Flesh the condition of a Man who wants nothing neither Riches nor Pleasures nor Honours Take saith our Prophet Flesh in the fullest Enjoyment and Plenty of all things in the most flourishing Gayety Pomp Splendor and Lustre at the very top of Honour yea though upon a Throne though abounding with immense Riches though having his Enemies lying at his Feet and being Master of the whole World yet in the midst of all these Joys Elevations and Triumph he will be liable to that damping Thought But for all this thou art mortal and all this must end in Death All this Pomp and Triumph is but of one Day 't is but a Flower of the Field and this Flower is an Herb which though blown and flourishing yet is still but an Herb and all the Glory and Goodliness thereof nothing but Flesh well painted and trimly deck'd indeed yet for all that at the bottom nothing but Flesh A Flower is no less fading perishing nor less subject to be trod under foot or to be scorch'd and withered by the Sun than the Grass is As they grow in the same Field they are liable to be cut down with the Edge of the same Sithe or Sickle When the Harvest is come Death spares none singles out none but mows down all with his dreadful Sithe Rich and Poor Nobles and Commons Bond and Free Grass and Flowers without making any Distinction at all But the Word of our God shall stand for ever You expected probably that the Prophet would have opposed Flesh to Spirit and the Body to the Soul and that he would have express'd himself to this purpose All Flesh is as Grass but the Mind of Man is a Divine Flame and Celestial Light which can never be extinguish'd and his Soul is immortal But no such thing there is nothing saith he but the Word of God that is Eternal if the Soul of Man be not born again of the incorruptible Seed of this Word don't flatter it with lying Titles don't call it immortal after that the Judg of the World hath pronounc'd this unerring and irrevocable Sentence The Soul that sins it shall die This is the Stile of the Prophets not of the Philosophers these indeed take great Pains to evince by Arguments the Immortality of the Soul but the former teach us that Souls die an Eternal Death when the Word of the Lord is not found rooted and ingrafted in them This is the only Principle of Life and Immortality without which the Soul's Immortality will only serve to plunge it into a Death nay into a thousand cruel Deaths and that eternally The Immortality of the Soul consists only in its Holiness and Conformity to God But consider we further the Opposition the Prophet makes here of the Word of God to all the Glory of the World This latter cannot with all the Efforts of her Vanity so much as make one Flower nor the least Spire of Grass whereas the Word of God hath made all things and still supports and upholds all it hath made even the whole Universe The Glory of the World sheds and shews all its Lustre all its Force on the Surface of things if you pry beyond that the Inside is nothing but Misery nothing but Frailty The Word of God on the contrary carries its Treasure in an Earthen Vessel outwardly to look upon it nothing seems more weak nothing more contemptible 't is a Voice crying in the Wilderness 't is a Man that speaks a poor Mortal it seems but a beating of the Air a Sound which the Wind carries away as fast as it is uttered And yet by this weak Instrument by the Foolishness of Preaching God brings forth his Wonders gaining the Heart by the Ear and converting it to himself and planting in it by his Spirit the sacred Sprig of Eternal Life The Words that I speak they are Spirit they are Life The Heavens and Earth shall pass away but my Word shall never pass away And thus have I as briefly as I could consider'd my Text. I shall now in the next place apply it to the present occasion The Voice saith Cry but to whom shall I cry To thee O Lord but thou art offended To the Angels and Saints but they cannot hear me To the Thrones of the Earth * King Charles had been beheaded two Years before but they are cast down To our Prince but he can no longer hear and yet he speaks I will therefore repeat his Voice to thy People and cry All Flesh is Grass Here is a Voice that cries O my Son another O my Husband and others my Brother and another would cry †The Princess was then big with Child of this our King if he could O my Father So many other Voices cry my Fortune and Well being The whole Church hath mourned and all Europe hath lamented But all the Voices that compose the several Notes of this mournful Harmony do all accord and concenter in this Chorus that all Flesh is Grass and all the Glory thereof as the Flower of the Field Imagine his Highness by a Miracle standing again upon his Feet in this Place where he has so often appeared and where he did so often display the Beams of his Light and of his Joy and crying in this Assembly who would not be moved at it who would not be touch'd at the bottom of their Hearts But there is no need of all this when without standing without walking stark dead and without Motion as he is he ceaseth not to cry out Yea his very being without Motion is that which speaketh loudest to us and proclaims as by a Voice from Heaven that the empty Scheme and Fashion of this World passeth away and we our selves together with it The Throne leaves some and others leave it and as there is but one Kingdom that cannot be shaken in the Heavens so neither is there any more than one God who is the immortal King of Ages The Voice of our dead Prince therefore cries Don't weep for me but weep for your selves consider your own case O Mortals I shall come no more where you are but you shall come where I am And why are you afraid to come up hither You are surrounded with a World that is involv'd and plung'd in Sin and Evil and yet you are not willing to go out of it and you have over your Heads a glorious Heaven and yet are unwilling to ascend thither From this lofty Mansion whither I am got I behold your great Multitudes of People as so many busy Ants the World as a Shadow and the Earth as a Point I am here above your Enemies and Miseries above your Fears and Hopes above your Covetousness and Revenge out of the reach of Calumnies and Ingratitude and all those many Passions which divide all
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
Furthermore if you ask me Why it is that all Flesh is Grass subject to Fading and Death I answer because without Death we cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven It was impossible even for Adam all innocent and all just as he was to be transported to Heaven without leaving his Flesh behind him or without undergoing some Change which might devest him of his natural Infirmities and endow him with Divine and Spiritual Qualities And would you aspire to the Glory of this Kingdom without putting off the old Rags of your corruptible Nature Nothing that is defiled or impure shall ever enter into it nor any thing that is of an earthy and corruptible Nature Don't therefore ask me any more why the Flesh even of the Children of God is as Grass or why they must unavoidably die There are two obvious Reasons for it and such as you cannot be ignorant of The first is because of their Sin the second because of their Infirmity and Corruptibility The Angels were Sinners but had no Flesh and consequently were not subject to Mortality Adam was mortal as being made up of Flesh and Blood but was no Sinner nevertheless neither the Angels after they had sinn'd nor Adam who had never sinn'd could ever bear the Presence of God The Sinfulness of the Fallen Angels could not bear his Justice and the infirm and corruptible Nature of Man could not bear the Glory of his Divine Majesty and we who are both infirm Mortals and Sinners how could we appear before his Supreme Justice or endure his transcendent Glory without being struck down to the Ground without being overset and swallowed up by them Our Bodies therefore must by Death be cast into the Grave as into a Melting-pot to be melted down and to be cast a-new Death is the true Purgatory here the Saints are refined here they put off all the Remains of Corruption by quitting the cast Skin of the Old Man and all the Infirmities of their Flesh But the Prophet here cries out All Flesh without confining himself either to the Flesh of Sin or to the Flesh of Weakness and Corruptibility All Flesh all that we see all that charms and flatters our Senses all those painted Delusions all those gay Colours and pleasant Pictures yea the whole World with all that is in it is all but Flesh and all Flesh is as Grass Men being sensible that their Flesh must return to the Earth whence it was taken endeavour at least to preserve the Memory of it by dead but durable Representations such as Pictures Statues Triumphal Arches c. But there is no Matter no Industry that is of Proof against the devouring Teeth of Time the secret Force of that powerful Corrosive wastes by degrees and defaces sooner or later Colossus's Pyramides and Mausoleums Marble and Brass indeed last longer than our Bodies yet in process of Time they crumble away and thereby demonstrate they were but Flesh and Corruption Dust and Ashes All the tempting Objects you gaze and dote upon with so much Wonder and Love are but Apples of Sodom fair and tempting to the Eye but worm-eaten and rotten within The Colour that shines outwardly is gay and ravishing but all this Paint covers nothing but Dust and Ashes and still at the bottom all is but Grass which is green and flourishing for a while but soon after turns to Hay dry'd faded and dead without any Colour Strength or Virtue O Earth Earth Earth hear the World of the Lord Jer. 22.29 cries the Prophet Jeremy In which Exclamation he intends Man who is thrice Earth because he was made of Earth because he feeds on Earth and because having lingred and crept for a time upon it at last returns into the Belly of the Earth our common Mother The Condition of Man is much the same with those Plants shall I call them or living Creatures call'd Plantanimals which being fastned by the Belly to the Earth brouze and eat up all the Grass they find within their reach and then die for lack of Nourishment But it may be some will say that this may pass for Truth in reference to the common sort of People and the Scum of Men but that the Heroes the Monarchs the Conquerors of Nations the Thunder-bolts of War have something that raises them above those vulgar and creeping Souls Our Prophet in some respect seems to agree to this for he puts some Difference between a poor and a rich Man between a Subject and a Prince But alas what Difference is it Why such as there is between green Grass and a fine Flower which by its lively and lustrous Colour shines like a Star in a Medow for so the ancient Poets by a witty Metaphor called Flowers the Stars of the Earth The Societies of Men are not without their Stars but these Stars fall and become extinguish'd nor without their Lillies and Roses but these Roses have their Prickles and these Lillies are as short-liv'd as they are sweet and pleasant The Lillies of the Field outvie Solomon in all his Glory but for all this are still but poor fading Flowers more gay and beautiful indeed but not less perishing than others The tall Cedar as well as the Hysop that grows on the Wall the Flowers as well as the Grass of the Field all fade and all perish And this is the Reason why our Prophet after that he had said All Flesh is Grass adds And all the Glory thereof is as the Flower of the Field He understands by the Glory thereof its Lustre and Beauty its Grace and Splendor its Strength and Vigour its Gayety and Pomp whatsoever in it is most sweet pleasing and ravishing In a word all that dazling Pomp and Show which the Prince of Darkness display'd before the Eyes of the Prince of Life all the Kingdoms of the Earth with all their Glory The word Glory according to the Stile of the Jews comprehends the three capital good things wherein Men generally place their Bliss and Happiness to wit Profit Honour and Pleasure for these are the three Demons that possess all Men Covetousness Ambition and Voluptuousness divide all Mankind and are the Trinity the World so much adores The word Glory takes in all these three it signifies Riches in that Expression of Laban's Children concerning Jacob Gen. 31.1 Of that which was our Fathers hath he gotten all his Glory It is taken for Honours as when St. Jude calls Princes and Magistrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jude v. 8. Glories which we translate Dignities And for Pleasures where mention is made of the Glory of Solomon 's Court that is its Bravery Pleasures and Delights Whence it is that we read in the New Testament of Riches of Glory of a Crown of Glory and of a Joy unalterable and full of Glory And therefore this Word has been singled out to express the full Enjoyment of all good things in the Life to come because there we shall have wherewith to give plenary
the Spaces of your Lives I am here crowned with an incorruptible Diadem seated upon a Throne that cannot be shaken in the Bosom of God my Father in the Company of Angels and Saints and amongst my triumphant Forefathers Prepare your selves therefore and make ready to follow me You who were ready and willing to follow me in the hottest and most dangerous Places of the Field can you not resolve to follow me to this Abode of Glory to this Place of Triumph You who have this Opportunity to hear him crying and recommending things of this Importance improve and make good Use of this Voice of your dead Master let him be this Day your Master in a new Sense and you that formerly were his Servants become now his Disciples for certainly we shall never receive a more pressing Advertisement from Heaven or that can fix in our Souls more sharp Goads to spur us to a Contempt of this World This same Voice addresseth it self to all the Principalities and Powers that God hath raised to a Throne the Voice from Heaven cries I have said ye are Gods but ye shall die like Men. The Principalities and Powers of Heaven which are the Angels die not because they are not clothed with Flesh but it is appointed to all Men once to die I say once only for the Word of God shall rescue us from Death and shall make us to live again eternally with the Angels The second Voice is that of a young Prince whom Death hath cropp'd when he was but beginning to blossom and to shoot the first Buds of an extraordinary Vertue at the Age of Twenty four Alas why was this young Hero so soon snatch'd from us because though young in Years yet upon many Accounts he was ripe not with reference to what he would have been had he liv'd longer but to what others are at that Age which is but the first quarter of Man's Life O what Difference is there between twenty four and fourscore which is the term of Life the Prophet allots to the strongest Men. O had it pleased God to have preserv'd him till that term how well would he have answered his Name Posterity reading his great Acts would have demanded whether it were the Father or the Son or this our good Prince But considering the Shortness of his Life we may truly say our rare our wonderful Prince had not his Peer in our Days And being thus in his first Dawning what Beams what a Glory might not we justly have expected from his High-noon His Spring having shew'd so fair and pompous what Fruits what Advantages should not we have reap'd from his Autumn But then he could not have cried as he does now All Flesh is Grass and all the Glory thereof as the Flower of the Field After this who can warrant you that you shall be alive to morrow You 'll say why my Youth my hail Constitution my Vigour and Strength But say I was there ever any thing more gay more lively more blooming than his Royal Highness was full of good Blood and a quick Fire He was all Action and all Life he was like Jonathan swift like an Eagle strong as a Lion but yet neither the one nor the other could deliver him Go to now vain Mortals and sacrifice to your Muscles and admire your Agility as if Men of strong and Athletick Constitutions had an Exemption from Death and as if Glass that is new blown was not as brittle as that which was made long before The third Voice is that of a Great Prince for Princes like Stars are some of them of the first Magnitude some of the second c. they are all of them Great indeed but not all Equal for one excels the other in Glory There be many Princes that are of a sweet and good Temper who yet are neither good nor great Princes because they want the Princely Vertues that are so necessary to the Good of their Subjects But as for our Prince Is there any of those that knew him dares say that he was not of the highest Elevation and of the greatest Magnitude Alas had he liv'd longer what signal Proofs would he have given of it From the Rock whence he was hewn could proceed nothing but what was great on either side God had favour'd him with lofty Heroical Motions worthy of and well becoming that Princely Spirit mention'd by the Prophet Gifts very rare in our Age But yet the Voice cries notwithstanding all this Greatness and Excellency he is dead vanish'd and gone and faded away like the Flower of the Field Worship God therefore both great and small and knowing that there is no Greatness can stand before him without stooping to his Power cast down your Crowns at the Foot of his Throne and do him Obeisance The fourth Voice is that of our Prince the most sweet Voice and yet the most bitter of all the rest and which properly is address'd to us The World laments him but it is we have lost him Others bewail him but alas we are deprived of him and yet I know not by what Effect of a fatal Stupidity we whom it concerns most grieve less for him than they do God grant I be not the Prophet of your Disaster but whatever we may think God never withdraws such great Lights out of the World but at the Approach of some black Tempest which will certainly overtake us if to day that we hear his Voice we harden our Hearts If we prove insensible of this terrible Stroke God hath discharg'd on our Heads he 'll strike the whole Body He hath made a dreadful Step but don't think he will stop there for behold he comes in these dark Clouds and every Eye shall see him If we will not be sensible of the Thunder he hath levell'd at our Heads he 'l lift up his Rod of Iron and break Arms and Limbs and together with the Head of Gold will beat to pieces the Members of Silver Brass and Iron and make them become like the Chaff of the Summer-threshing Floors which the Wind carries away so that no Place shall be found for them Death hath taken away our Prince but something worse than Death may take away our Provinces His Magazien is not exhausted nor his Stores drawn dry he hath other Darts to shoot besides * The Prince died of the Small-Pox the small Pox he will send his pale black and red Horse Plague War and Famine that shall reap your Provinces and avenge the Contempt of his Name and if God hath spar'd you till now if you be the last that shall drink of his Cup which hath gone round the Nations assure your selves unless you prevent it by a timely Repentance you shall drink the very Dregs and Bottom of it Can you think that those on whom the Tower of Siloam fell in our Days were worse than you are who make no other Return for his most signal Benefits but that of Ingratitude and who turn his