Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	sin_n	soul_n	wage_n	5,338	5	10.9200	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
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

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

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