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
during the Treaty of Peace You would not have had so good Conditions from them who have yielded you so much yet had yielded nothing but for fear of his rising Glory In this case they would have been so far from owning you a Free People that they would have still treated you as Rebels they would have redemanded your Conquests and you would have been fain calmly to yield them up and whatsoever they have offer'd the same they would have exacted of you Yea here I dare assert something which though it will not seem probable at first sight yet will be found very true in the Sense I mean it This Prince has been the Prince of your Peace not that he wish'd for it as a weak and pusillanimous Prince might have done his martial Humour could never suffer him to be weary of the War if he had not preferr'd the Publick Peace to his own Inclinations which were all upon the wing for Glory but because the Apprehensions which the Blood of Nassau working and beating in his Veins gave his Enemies was the charming Caduceum that made them so compliant The Father carryed on the War and the Son made the Peace the Father made you Victorious in the former and the Son made you Arbitrator of the latter The Father had carryed the Terror of his Arms into the heart of Spain but he being no more 't is to his Son in whom they saw him reviv'd and from whom they feared all that they had so lately suffer'd to which you owe if not the Peace at least the Advantages of it For who could have thought they would ever have stooped to such Disadvantageous Conditions And as he had procur'd it so he likewise preserv'd and maintain'd it nor was there any fear your Enemies would ever break it as long as this young Lyon was the Keeper of your fair Provinces so deep an impression had his Roaring already made upon their Spirits How exceeding would have been your Joy how great your Security to have seen at the Head of your Armies the Son and Grand-Son of your Illustrious Defenders like a young Caesar covering your Fields with the dead Bodies of your Tyrants and his Hereditary Enemies dying your Channels with their Blood thundering crushing and breaking to pieces and shivers whatsoever made the least Pause in accepting his Yoak or the least Shew of opposing it self to his Shock You could not expect any thing less from that Great Heart wherewith God had endow'd him which was always in Action and in a perpetual and rapid Motion as that of the Sun and the Heavens We do not say this to flatter him or to please him were he still in the World we should not say it but what is there left for us to praise if it be not lawful for us to praise a Prince after his Death In the Blessed State to which he is arrived amongst the Saints and Angels and his Triumphant Ancestors cover'd with a thousand Lawrels crown'd with a Diadem incorruptible as he dispenceth no Favours so he wants none of our Praises We speak it only to satisfie Truth and to awaken the drowsie senses of some who without any bad intention but by a too great Concern for their Business and Petty Interests will shake their heads and say Well God will raise us up another all this will still be for the best and be a means of Vniting us more together And God grant you may be more United for sure it is that He can make you so without any Means and without that Prince who was the Cement of your Union the Captain of your Armies the Terror of your Enemies and the Tutelar Angel of your Dominions But still we must own that this is ill spoken for if we do not feel the stroaks God discharged on our heads what is it we shall feel then And if Crowns fell'd to the ground do not make us afraid we have reason to believe He will not stop there But to proceed We have just Cause to bemoan the Princess because she is a Mother who has lost her only Son her Joy and her Crown the Fruit of her Education and the Living Pourtraicture of her Vertues But his other Mother I mean the Church of God must be the Principal Object of our Mourning for She indeed hath lost more than we do imagine but shall know it one day henceforward we shall see the Numbers of those Idolaters encreased which swarm in our days and shall find a Sluce opened to the Licentiousness of Sects and Fanatical Opinions We don't make a Saint or Demi-God of him tho it be notorious that Old Rome hath Deified and New Rome Canoniz'd such as did not reach him for Worth The Sun it self hath its Spots neither was he without the Faults of Great Princes but he had acknowledg'd condemn'd and amended them and should we go about to compare him with the Princes of our Time it would be an easie thing to prove That our good Prince at the Age of Twenty Four had not his Fellow in our days And this being so we must say our Rare nay our Admirable Prince We will not enter upon Comparisons but only say That we mostly extol Princes for their easiness of Access Bounty sweetness of Temper and Affability which indeed in themselves are very commendable Virtues but not the Virtues of Princes they are good but for what For any thing but Government That Princely Spirit those Heroical Elevations and those Great and Generous Thoughts have not many Examples in our Age Thus much we can Averr That ours had so much of them as engaged him to love the Church of God and to hate those with a perfect Hatred that troubled its Repose or corrupted its Purity We have this of certain knowledge That he would never have been a Favourer of Errour or Faction And is not this a Good of inestimable Value Sion hath lost the fairest of her Ornaments and the most precious of her Pillars the Breath of our Nostrils he of whom we said we shall rest under his shadow The Whole Body of our Churches will feel this Blow and put on Mourning for this our Prince Our Churches in France were not so confin'd but that they look'd upon our Prince with Joy as being one of theirs and doubt not but they are more sensible of this Stroak than we are But all Words fail us when we come to cast our eyes upon the desolate young Princess young a Widow and with Child and sooner a Widow than a Mother how many Swords have pierc'd her Soul How many Calamities have beaten upon her like so many crowding Waves one upon the back of another What Deeps hath she seen rowling over her and ready to swallow her Which way would you have her turn her self To the Continent They are not concern'd at it To the Isles She there sees her Shipwrack round about her she there perceives nothing but a black Image of Death and Despair She has nothing to direct her eyes to but to Heaven for she can never so little cast her eyes down to the Earth but she finds her self obliged to groan for horror and sorrow of heart a Mother in Banishment a Brother in Trouble a Father upon the Scaffold and to fill the Measure brimfull a Husband in a Coffin Let us draw a Curtain before as Timantes of Old did for this Sorrow admits no Colours But do we think the Prince left One Onely Widow He had indeed Marryed but one Wife and yet hath left Eight Widows behind him The Seven Provinces will accompany his Royal and Desolate Spouse all in Tears and cover'd with the same Mourning Ashes Let us all therefore smite upon our breasts and say with Jehoshaphat O Lord our God we know not what to do but our eyes are towards thee 'T is thou who loosest the Bells of Kings and who bringest down from the Throne into the Dust 'T is thou who hast their hearts in thy hand and putst thy breath into their Nostrils 'T is thou who saidst to Princes I have said ye are Gods but ye shall dye like men We acknowledge before thee that our sins have drawn down thy Judgments upon us and that thou hast justly suffered the Crown to fall from our heads because we have trod thy Commandments under our feet 'T is true O Lord that we have too much trusted in that Arm which we now experience was but an Arm of flesh instead of having our eye to that great Arm of Heaven which hath supported us and can still support us as well as it upholds the Earth without any other prop or stay True it is we have too much sacrificed to our nets and sitting down under the shadow of our own Power have not sought as we ought our safety under the covert of thy wings Wherefore also thou hast snatch'd him away from us woe unto us that we have sinned But in the midst of thy wrath O Lord remember mercy Look down with pity and spare a House which of so long a time hath been the Ornament and Stay of thine the goodliest part of thine Inheritance the refuge of thy Ark and the Tabernacle of thy Glory Raise to thy Servant a just seed that may rebuild thy Temple Thou who art the Prince of Life who holdest in thy hands the issues of Life and Death open to him the Gates of Life preserve this Royal Slip as of old thou didst Moses in an Ark of Bulrushes beaten with the winds and at the mercy of the Waves comfort the Widow big with Child strengthen her heart in this hard Tryal to which thou hast been pleased to reduce her open the eyes and bless the endeavours of our Magistrates and grant that in this great Eclipse we may by the compass of their prudent and steady Conduct meet with the Remedy of our Evils Vouchsafe to us all the Grace to despise the hollow empty Figure of this World and all its illusions the Flesh with all its Glory that from henceforth we may place our Hopes in thee alone who art the great Prince of our Salvation O Holy and Wise Ruler of the World govern us by the Sceptre of thy Word and of thy Holy Truth till Princes and Provinces Magistrates and People Pastors and Flocks being gathered together in thy Heavenly Jerusalem there to enjoy the glorious Liberty of thy Son may Eternally Ascribe to thee Honour Power and Blessing c. FINIS
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
Visitations and Judgments into Plays and Pasquils How greatly do you please the Devil and his Instruments by this your Behaviour How do you double your Enemies Joys and as if they had not sufficient Cause of Triumph from our Disaster we afford them new Occasions from our Ingratitude and Stupidity We would willingly cry nothing but Blessing but alas what good Presage can we draw from seeing many of us of the same Mind and entertaining the same Wishes with our Adversaries Surely a most unhappy Sign it is to see us seconding the Desires of our Enemies and unsensible of a Loss which is likely to prove the occasion of our utter Ruine Who is able to conceive or express the Desolation to which that House is reduc'd which formerly shone with the Lustre of so many glorious Lights When these Dominions lost their Maurice they presently lighted upon Frederick Henry his most worthy Brother and Successor and when he was withdrawn too you well remember how they immediately thereupon embraced Prince William his most worthy Son who then wiped the Tears from your Eyes and like a beautiful rising Sun dispell'd the Darkness and Shadows of your Night but instead thereof at present he draws Tears from your Eyes and leaves behind him as it were a Sun set without the Hopes of a Return the very Shadow of Death which is the Night of Life Not that he will want worthy Successors for the Blood of Nassau is not extinct in his Veins there are other Branches left still only there is never a Brother never a Son as formerly that yet appears in the World We have no more in our Eyes a Light like to those two twin Stars called Castor and Pollux whereof the one no sooner sets but the other riseth and calms the Storm by a pleasing Vicissitude We shall see no more a Phenix to be born of his Ashes an only Son appear upon the Throne immediately after the Death of a Father who seem'd the only Glory of the World and who yet would not have been so had his Son liv'd longer But there is a Budcover'd under the Earth which e're long will shoot up like a Sprig from a dry Ground which shall make his Name and our Hope to grow green and flourish again God grant it God bring it to pass God be pleased to kindle again the Lamp of his Anointed and cause our Lebanon to flourish Though I cannot but own that these are things at a distance and very uncertain very uncertain for the Event and very remote as to their Enjoyment for will it not be a Miracle of God if the sacred Fruit should be preserv'd in so surious a Storm in the midst of such rude Shakings and such terrible Convulsions and after all how many Years must pass over our Heads before he be ripe or capable of representing to us his Father his Grand-father or Great Grand-father or all three of them together but yet so he does but come we shall say Tandem fit Surculus Arbor the Sprig will at length come to be a Tree and our Wishes and Blessings shall haste forwards his Age and Vertue so that we shall see him grow to the very Eye in Authority over Men and Favour with God for why may we not promise our selves from the Son what we have seen in the Person of the Father I call him Father alas all trembling in the Stile of a Prophet who as yet hath never a Child and I call him Son who it may be will not be at all or it may be not a Son and who for certain will not see his Father save at the Resurrection But we we I say have seen him antedating his Years and anticipating our Expectations by Heroical advanc'd and mature Motions and in his first Season shewing in his Discourses all the Prudence and Sagacity of consummated old Age. Those who have seen him in Business and in Council have reason to know it better than we and I take them to witness whether they have not a thousand times admir'd the Gravity of his Youth the Sweetness of his Fire the Severity of his Joy the Heat that animated him and on the other hand the Prudence that restrained him Even those themselves who never saw him but at ordinary Audiences and in private Converse cannot be ignorant neither of the Authority that his Eyes shed on his Discourse nor of the Grace that was poured forth on his Lips nor of the Solidity of his Judgment which he made appear every where to be well worthy of a fourscore Years Experience In a word such he was that if a Stranger should have chanc'd at first to have seen him without his blew Ribbon in a common Dress amongst a Crowd of Gentlemen where he had only pronounced three Words he must have been stupid not to have presently said That is the Prince Even those very Persons who could not love yet did admire him When I speak of those who did not love him I do not mean any Person in the midst of us for I cannot conceive any one amongst us to be so great a Traitor to his Country as not to love the Head and Prince which God had set over them I speak of Strangers Do I say Strangers when it is apparent that Strangers loved him as well as we I mean his and our Enemies who are equally sworn Enemies of our Religion and his Illustrious Family They consider'd him as a Head fatal to their Tyranny the only but universal Heir of that Name and Vertue which has so often shook the Foundations of their Escurial O how many secret Bonfires will they kindle in their Hearts Can you question their chanting an inward Te Deum They had nothing so precious wherewith they would not have been willing to purchase this piece of News What would not they have given for the Advantage this Death hath cast in upon them Boast no more of your Trophies nor so many Victories you have gained over them Would to God Breda or Mastricht were still in their Hands so we had but our Prince who was of more Value to you than a whole Kingdom We have now great reason to own that there is nothing so low nothing so high which is not levell'd by Death You had the upper Hand both in War and Peace and that in a glorious manner over your Enemies You were their Masters but this Death hath set you upon even Ground and hath made them quit with you When you shall begin to reckon up your Triumphs your conquer'd Places the Battels you have won they will answer and dash this with a You have no more your Prince of Orange This only Word will be sufficient to comfort all their Disgraces and to damp and mortify all your Joy and Glory This Death alone may make you think that Peace advantageous which you had so much Difficulty to accept of But what would have become of you had your good Prince left you either before or