Person He made a mourning I call 't an Action which may as well be term'd a Passion as a mourning so a Passion as he made it so an Action a passionate action or an active passion The internal grief of his minde and sorrow of his heart as an inward passion of his soul was voluntarily rais'd within him by resolved and continued thoughts of his Fathers death and at the same time the expression of that grief was willingly powred forth as what he understood did well become him We are not only to bewail our sins but all those miseries which proceed from them and therefore tears were not only lent us to declare Compunction but also to express Commiseration We reade our blessed Saviour twice did weep once for the sins of Ierusalem once for the death of Lazarus whom he loved Two eyes Nature bestow'd upon us though perfectly and distinctly we can see but with one at once and both are equally made the fountains of tears as we are sinners for Contrition as we are Brethren for Compassion When the first Martyrs bloud was shed for the Christian faith devout men carryed Steven to his burial and made great lamentation over him such were the tears of the Infant Church When Peter found Dorcas a woman full of good works and Almesdeeds dead all the Widows stood by him weeping Thus the first which died in Christianity were followed with solemn tears and it was a wise observation made by the Apostate Iulian That one of the the means to convert so many Heathens to our Religion was the care of the bodies and the solemnities alwayes used at the Funerals of the dead Thus far of the Action He made a mourning The occasion of this sadness is expressed in a word but must be considered in many more as being the principal concernment both of the Text and Time The mover of his passion the object of his grief the cause of his tears was his Father And he made a mourning for his Father This was so truly the occasion that it was the only cause that there can be no reason imaginable assigned why Ioseph should mourn but only because he had lost a Father Though he was aged to extremity though he was holy unto eminency though he was happy to eternity though no way disadvantagious by his death to any yet because dead and that a Father dead he made a mourning for him We usually say of ancient persons that they have already one foot in the grave and the rest of their life is nothing else but the bringing of these feet together Why then should we weep for the death of aged persons when it can be but the second part of their Funeral That sorrow seems to be but useless which is spent upon necessities and that grief irrational which would create impossibilities The daies of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow What reason then can we produce that the life of a man whom we esteem should be sorrow to himself and his death be grief to us Now Iacob gave this account of his age to Pharaoh when he came down to Egypt The daies of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years and he lived in the land seventeen years so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years This extremity of age had fastned him to his bed the perfect embleme and short forerunner of his grave The eyes of Israel were dim so that he could not see he was already in the shades of darkness Nay the time drew nigh saith Moses that Israel must die there was a natural necessity of his death an apparent impossibility of longer life and yet this consideration is no excuse to Ioseph but he made a mourning for his aged Father Secondly the death of the righteous is to be desired rather then lamented and it were a dishonour put upon Religion to think a pious man less happy dead then when he liv'd Weep not for me was the language of the immaculate Lamb when he went to a shameful and a painful death and why should he which yeelds up his soul with comfort leave his body to be covered with so much sorrow Those which live in impiety and depart in their iniquity they which have here provoked the wrath of God and goe hence with that wrath abiding on them as they could create nothing to their relations but sorrow in their life so must they necessarily increase it at their death But Iacob was a Patriarch of eminent and constant piety particularly and remarkably belov'd of God highly blessed by him and powerfully blessing in his name and yet when Iacob dieth Ioseph weepeth And he made a mourning for his pious Father Thirdly Death is nothing else but a change of a short and temporary for an unalterable and eternal condition From whence it followeth that those which dye in their sins from thence begin to feel those torments which shall never cease and therefore they leave behinde them a sad occasion of grief and sorrow to such as are apprehensive of the pains they feel If the Rich man in the Gospel were so careful of his surviving brethren and so concerned in their welfare if they had as well understood his sad and irreversible condition what floods of tears would they have shed for him who call'd so earnestly for a drop of water to cool his tongue But as for such as pass from hence into a place of rest and joy who change the miseries of this sinful world for the blessed presence of a good and gracious God weeping at their departure may seem improper and unkinde officiousness as 't were a sorrow for their happiness and envy at their felicity Now the soul of Iacob was certainly at rest and Ioseph sufficiently assured of his happiness He knew that his Father was heir of the same promise with Abraham for he looked for a City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God he died in faith and imbraced the promises he confessed that he was a stranger on the earth and that he sought a better countrey that is an heavenly and therefore God had prepared for him a City and he was in the bosome of Abraham the place of felicity But the happiness of his soul is no excuse to Ioseph for the Funeral tears due at the interment of his body And he made a mourning for his happy Father Fourthly many persons expiring give too sad occasions of sorrow to their relations left behinde they which depend upon them whose subsistence liveth and dyeth and whose hopes are buried with them may goe to their graves with unfeigned tears lamenting not so much the departure of their friend as their own loss something they may weep for them and more for themselves But the death of Iacob was not of any such condition there could
THE Patriarchal Funeral OR A SERMON Preached before The Right Honourable GEORGE Lord BERKELEY Upon the Death of his FATHER By JOHN PEARSON LONDON Printed by E. Cotes for Iohn Williams at the Sign of the Crown in St. Pauls Church-yard 1658. To the Right Honourable GEORGE Lord BERKELEY Baron of Berkeley Mowbray Seagrave and Breouse My Lord I Have been lately honoured by your Lordship with a double command one to preach the other to publish this Sermon of the first of which though I might have been innocently ambitious yet of the second I may be justly asham'd partly because the Sermon it self is much unworthy of publique view especially upon an occasion of so great remark partly and more concerningly in regard that having been so many years happy in the knowledge of your Lordship and as long obliged as known unto your Honour I have not hitherto appear'd with any thing worthy of your Lordship's Patronage I shall therefore humbly crave the leave of making to my self this interpretation that your Honour did intend this Command as a remembrance of my duty that I may hereafter meditate something to demonstrate to whom I owe the encouragement of my studies In the interim by this present Discourse I shall only give a testimony how properly I have endeavoured the memory of your Father by obscuring his virtues and your concernments in my expressions from all persons who are strangers to your Family while I speak to them which were known unto you both as to such as cannot but be most sensible and bear a perpetual remembrance of them Howsoever what is wanting in this Funeral Sermon shall be supplyed in my perpetual devotion praying for an everlasting succession of 〈◊〉 Benedictions upon your Honour your Honourable and most Virtuous Lady and your most hopeful issue as becometh Your Honours most obliged and devoted Servant Iohn Pearson The Patriarchal Funeral GEN L. 10. And he made a mourning for his Father seven daies THere are two great names concealed in this Text but express'd by the Prophet David in a peculiar and eminent manner Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people the Sons of Iacob and Ioseph Great was the name of Abraham but all his Sons were not accepted only Isaac was in the Covenant Great was the name of Isaac but his Son Esau was rejected Great then must the name of Iacob be who had twelve Sons and all accepted The whole people of God descended from him and were called Israelites and the Sons of Iacob as his by generation from his loins One of these twelve was Ioseph and the rest did equally descend from him and might be called his Sons by preservation from his care and power Howsoever he is exempted from the number of his Brethren and that he might be styl'd a Father two Sons of his are numbred with his Fathers Sons and ranked with the Patriarchs Thus were all the people of God the Sons of Iacob and Ioseph and Ioseph while the Son of Iacob the Father of the Sons of Iacob These are the two concealed in the Text Iacob the Father and that Father dead Ioseph the Son and that a mourning Son for he made a mourning for his Father seven daies These words contain a brief relation of a Patriarchal Funeral in which two general parts are presented to our view The Solemnization of the Obsequies and The Continuation of the Solemnities In the description of the Solemnization there are four particulars observable The Connexion The Person The Action The Occasion The Connexion in the conjunctive particle And the Person understood in the following pronoun He the Action represented what He that is Ioseph did he made a mourning the Occasion expressed for whom he mourned for his Father The Connexion of the Text is double in reference to the Person and in relation to the Action The Connexion of the Person And he the Connexion of the Action with the precedent actions of that person And he made a mourning I shall begin with the Connexion of the Person and in my whole discourse exactly prosecute the method of the Text When aged Iacob yeelded up the ghost and was gathered unto his people the Physitians embalmed Israel and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten dayes They were not as yet the apparent enemies of God they had their tears for Iacob who afterward would have drowned all his Sons they preserved and prolonged the daies of his life and when those were cut off they continued the daies of his weeping But there is a difference between a formal and a real sorrow between a solemn and a serious grief between a popular and a filial sadness Wherefore Ioseph is not contented with the Egyptian mourning he hath a nearer relation then those strangers had and therefore more of affection is expected from him his filial sympathy must go beyond their accustomed civility the Egyptians mourned and He made a mourning for his Father This is the Connexion in respect of the Person that of the Action followeth When Iacob was near the time of his dissolution Ioseph put his hand under his thigh and sware unto him that he would deal kindly and truly with him that he would bury him in the burying place of his Fathers When he gathered up his feet into the bed and died Ioseph fell on his Fathers face and wept upon him and kissed him and so paid the first-fruits of a Funeral with his eyes and with his lips After this he commanded the Physicians to follow with Spices and embalm him desirous to preserve that body to the utmost possibility from corruption from which he had received his generation Then he entreated and obtained leave of Pharaoh to perform his Oath which he sware unto Iacob he went up to the Land of Canaan to take possession with his Fathers body and laid him in the field which Abraham bought There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife there Jacob buried Leah and there Ioseph buried Iacob And having thus fulfilled all the duties belonging to a Son there remaining but this one fitter to be performed then required he made a mourning for his Father This is the Connexion of the Action The Person or chief mourner then is Ioseph he which once was dead in the thoughts of Iacob and desires of his brethren survives his Father to attend his Funeral and to preserve his Brethren alive His coming into Egypt cost aged Iacob many a tear and he must passe into Canaan to demonstrate his gratitude and pay that debt unto his Father there This eminent Person is proposed for an example unto all ages of the world what he here performed was no legall Ceremony he was a Patriarch and long before the law he was a singular and signal type of Christ and hath done nothing which may misbecome the most retired and sublimed Christian And this will readily appear if we joyn the Action to the
no disadvantage arise from that to Ioseph no interest of his could suffer by it He had already blessed all his Sons and Ioseph principally there could be no more of heavenly favours expected from his prayers or prophesies Had he died before he laid his hands upon Ephraim and Menasseh had Ioseph and his Sons been absent when he blessed the rest he might have sadly mourned for the loss of his Father and of the Benediction If Esau lift up his voyce and wept because he was defeated of the blessing while Isaac lived Ioseph might well have made a mourning had he been prevented of the Benediction by an unexpected or a distant death But Iacob blessed them and with his blessing gave order for his burial and with that blessing and that order died And as his death was no way prejudicial to the spiritual so was it not at all disadvantageous to the temporal condition of his Son He suffered loss of no enjoyments by his Fathers death Iacob had lived long by the favour and the care of Ioseph his filial gratitude alone preserv'd his life but no such narrow thoughts abated the freeness of Ioseph's sorrow And he made a mourning for his Father If none of these considerations which work so powerfully on other persons did move this Mourner to express such sorrow what were the Motives then which caus'd so deep a sense what meditations wrought so powerfully on the heart of Ioseph I answer they were but two Mortality and Paternity the one supposed the other expressed in the text Iacob was the Father of Ioseph and that Father dead and therefore Ioseph mourned for him Mortality is a proper object to invite our pity and privation of life alone sufficient to move compassion in the living Weep for the dead saith the Son of Sirach for he hath lost the light If for no other reason yet because a man is dead and by death deprived of those comforts which those that live enjoy they which survive may providently bewail their future privation in his present loss Thus every Grave-stone bespeaks or expects a tear as if all those eyes which had not yet lost their light were to pay the tribute of their waters to the dead Sea This Fountain Nature never made in vain nor to be always sealed up that heart is rock which suffers it never to break forth and be it so yet if the rod of Moses strike an affliction sent from God shall force it Let us therefore be ready with our sorrowful expressions when we are invited by sad occasions especially when a Father who may command them calls for them as that Wise man did My Son let tears fall down over the dead And if paternal authority demands them at the death of others it is no filial duty which denyes them to attend upon a Fathers Funeral Ioseph a man of a gracious and a tender heart moved with common objects of compassion had a vulgar sorrow arising from the consideration of mortality Ioseph a Son full of high affection and of filial duty and respect was touched with a far more lively sense by the accession of paternity And he made a mourning for his Father he made a mourning for his Father which begat him for his Father which loved him for his Father which blessed him for his Father which had mourned for him for his Father which came down to dye with him First he made a mourning for his Father who begat him had there been no other but that naked relation it had carryed with it a sufficient obligation There is so great an union between the Parent and the Childe that it cannot break without a deep sensation He which hath any grateful apprehension of his own life received cannot chuse but sadly resent the loss of that life which gave it If the fear of the death of Croesus by a natural miracle could untie the tongue of his Son who never spake before that man must be miraculously unnatural the flood-gates of whose eyes are not open'd at his Fathers Funerals though he never wept before The gifts of grace doe not obliterate but improve nature and it is a false perswasion of Adoption which teacheth us so far to become the sons of God as to forget that we are the sons of men Ioseph a person high in the esteem of Pharaoh higher in the favour of God great in the power of Egypt greater in the power of the Spirit yet he forgets not his filial relation yet he cannot deny his natural obligation but as a pious Son he payes the last tribute of his duty to Iacob And he made a mourning for his Father who begat him Secondly he made a mourning for his Father who loved him Love when in an equal commandeth love and this is so just that fire doth not more naturally create a flame In this the similitude is so great that there is no difference in the nature of the love produced and that which did produce it But when it first beginneth in a superior person the proper effect which it createth in an inferior is not of a single nature but such a love as is mingled with duty and respect The love of God to man challengeth love from us but that of such a nature as cannot be demonstrated but by obedience and that of a Father to his Son is of the same condition though not in the same proportion The Father loveth first with care and tenderness with a proper and a single love the Son returns it with another colour mingled with duty blended with respect Now Iacob had many children and as an eminent example he lov'd them all but among the rest there was one clearer and warmer flame for he loved Joseph more then all his children the off-spring of Rachel the Son of his old age the Heir of his Vertues the Corrector of his Brethren the Beloved of God had a greater share in Iacobs affection then the rest of his issue He did not so much prefer his wives before his hand-maids he did not so highly value Rachel before Leah as he did esteem Ioseph before the off-spring of them all This was the paternal love of Iacob and this was answered with as high a filial respect in Ioseph which after death could not otherwise be expressed then in tears And therefore he made a mourning for his Father who loved him Thirdly he made a mourning for his Father who had blessed him Blessing is the soveraign act of God and the power of benediction like the power of God He delegateth this power unto his Priests who stand between God and Man and bless the Sons of men in the Name of God He derives the same upon our natural Parents that children honouring them may expect his blessing upon their desires and prayers And what greater favour could we ask of God then that those persons who have the most natural affection toward us should also have the greatest power to bless us
Now when the time drew nigh that Israel must die when his body drew nearer to the Earth and his soul to Heaven when his desires were highest and his words of the greatest efficacy he called unto his Sons and blessed them every one according to his blessing he blessed them But as he loved Joseph more then all his Brethren so he blessed him above them all he made one Tribe of every Son and two of him his affection shew'd it self Rhetorical in his Benediction saying The blessings of thy Father have prevailed above the blessings of my Progenitors unto the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills they shall be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his Brethren Giving this Benediction Iacob dies receiving this Blessing Ioseph survives who can render no other Retribution after his death but care of his Burial and tears at his Funeral And therefore he made a mourning for his Father who had blessed him Fourthly he made a mourning for his Father who had mourned for him The Parents cares and Fears are equal and when any infelicity besides their children their griefs are great and all these bear a proportion with their love Now the love of Iacob to Ioseph was transcendent and being so it rais'd as high an hatred in the hearts of his Brethren by which he was in their intention and in his Fathers opinion dead And now the Funeral is Ioseph's let us see how Iacob does appear He rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his Son many days Here is a real demonstration upon a supposed death and a serious mourning at a feigned Funeral Had his dearest Son been dead yet he might well take comfort in his numerous off-spring but he did not for all his Sons and all his Daughters rose up to comfort him but he refused to be comforted and he said For I will goe down into the grave unto my Son mourning thus his Father wept for him Thus it pleased God to permit this happy deceit of envious Brethren this pious mistake of an affectionate Father not only for a great example of Paternal love but also to teach all Sons to measure their griefs at their Fathers death by a consideration of those sorrows which their Parents would have expressed had they dyed before them Howsoever Ioseph was but just in this for he made a mourning for his Father who had mourn'd for him Lastly he made a mourning for his Father who came down to die with him It was the old expression of Parents comfort that at their deaths they might have their children to close their eyes and it hath been equally the desire of children to be made happy by that occasion in shewing the last testimony of their duty at their Parents death Now Iacob who upon the supposed death of Ioseph had said I will goe down into the grave unto my Son upon the certain intelligence of his life and safety resolveth to goe down and die with him For when he saw the Waggons which Joseph sent and his spirit revived Israel said It is enough Joseph my Son is yet alive I will goe and see him before I die and when Ioseph first presented himself unto him in the land of Egypt the first words which he spake were these Now let me die since I have seen thy face because thou art yet alive Now he which said at first I will goe and see him before I die and when he saw him said Now let me die resolved nothing in that journey but to die with Ioseph And he made a moursing for his Father who came down to die with him For all these reasons Ioseph mourned for his Father who begat him remembring his natural generation for his Father who loved him not forgetting his singular affection for his Father who had blessed him considering his double Benediction for his Father who had mourned for him meditating a pious retaliation for his Father who came down to die with him embracing the opportunity of a dutiful expression And thus I close up the first general part of the Text or the Solemnization of the Obsequies The Second general Part of the same presents us with the Continuation of the Solemnity Which ministers a double Consideration one as consisting of not many days the other as determining how many days And he made a mourning for his Father seven days Immediately after Iacobs death in Egypt forty days were fulfilled for his embalming and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days They which have no hope of a life to come may extend their griefs for the loss of this and equal the days of their mourning with the years of the life of man But so tedious a Funeral Solemnity is a tacite profession of Infidelity When Moses went up unto the Mountain of Nebo and died there the children of Israel wept for him in the plains of Moab thirty dayes The plains of Moab were nearer to the Land of Promise then Egypt was and some light of the joys of the life to come was discovered under the Law and therefore more then half of the Egyptian Solemnity was cut off by the Faith of the Israelites But this Patriarchal Funeral was made in Canaan the Land of Promise the Type of Heaven it was appointed by Ioseph a blessed Patriarch and a Type of Christ it continued some days to declare his natural affection but those not many to express his religious expectation Had it been extended longer it had demonstrated more of duty but less of faith he had shew'd himself more a Son but less a Patriarch But now he is become a great Example in mourning some days of filial duty in mourning few days of Divinity Which is our first Consideration The Second leads us to the determinate number of the days which are expresly Seven And he made a mourning for his Father seven days The Iews took special notice of this act of Ioseph and in the land of Canaan observed the number of these days Seven days doe men mourn for him that is dead saith the Son of Sirach and though it be not unto us a law yet it is a proper subject of our Observation It was afterward one of the laws of Moses He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days And therefore well did Ioseph teach the Israelites to mourn the same number of days that with their tears of natural affection they might mingle some thoughts of their natural pollution Again the number of Seven is the number of rest In six days the Lord made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is and he rested on the Seventh day from all his works which he had made Now Ioseph knew that there remaineth a rest to the people of God he was fully assured that as the days of the years of his