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A53897 The patriarchal funeral, or, A sermon preached before the Right Honourable George Lord Berkeley upon the death of his father by John Pearson. Pearson, John, 1613-1686. 1658 (1658) Wing P1004; ESTC R33037 13,582 36

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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
Fathers pilgrimage were evil so they ended in rest and happiness that as sure as his body was past all weariness and pain so his soul was placed above all possibility of grief or sorrow A Dove brought Noah word into the Ark that the waters were on the face of the Earth and he stay'd seven days and then the Dove sent forth returned and loe in her mouth was an Olive leaf pluckt off so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth If we mourn for the death of any person departed and the waters appear upon the face of man yet after the seventh day when the Olive leaf is pluckt when we have considered the peace and rest and joyes of the souls departed in the fear of God 't is time for the waters to abate for mourning to cease Thirdly the number of Seven is the number of holiness as God rested the seventh day so he blessed and hallowea it Seven days Aaron and his Sons the Priests were consecrated seven days an Atonement was made and the Altar was sanctified Seven days hath Ioseph set apart for his Fathers Funeral to shew that mourning for the dead is something sacred the tenth of the Egyptian mourning an act of Piety a part of Religion The Iews observed that the Circumcision was deferred till the eighth day that a Sabbath might pass upon the childe and so sanctifie it before it was circumcised and Ioseph appointeth seven days for mourning one of which must necessarily be that day which God blessed and sanctified in the beginning to procure a blessing upon that duty and to sanctifie his sorrow Upon which seasonable Consideration I shall take leave to conclude my meditations on the Text and apply my self to the present Solemnity which gave the occasion to consider it that I may make such use of the work of this holy day as may sanctifie the sorrow of it And now most Honorable Sir the Ioseph of this time the chief Mourner of this day be pleased to endeavour the Sanctification of your mourning by these reflexive Meditations First learn from hence to meditate upon your own Mortality and be now assured by this neer and home example that your self shall die This may seem but a cold monition but a dull reflexion every Grave preacheth that Doctrine and every Skeleton readeth as good a Lecture when we come into the House of God our feet will learn thus much and the ground we tread upon will thus far instruct us 'T is true the examples of our mortality are numerous but they are not equally efficacious the nearer our relations are to those which die the more we are concerned in their death and there is none so neer in his concernment as that of the Father and the Son There is a difference between the language of the Scriptures and such a Prophet as Nathan was one tells us that all men are sinners the other says Thou art the man So common Funerals tell us all men are mortal but that of a Father speaketh not only plainly but particularly Thou art so From his vivacity the Son receiveth life and in his death must read his own departure 'T is possible to imagine an immortal family and then the deaths of others concern'd that not but where the Father 's dead there can be no pretence or thought of immortality Beside there 's something more then propinquity of nature in a Father Religion teacheth us that our daies are otherwise bound up in our Parents lives Remember the first Commandement with Promise Honor thy Father and thy Mother that thy daies may be long in the land consider that you have lost in his death all further opportunity of improving the hopes of that promise and that you stand now only as to him upon what comfort you have in your former duty and in your past obedience Thus learn to fix a more immediate and more concerning meditation of your own mortality upon the death of him in whose life yours was involved both by a natural and spiritual dependence Secondly reflect upon that love and entire affection which you have lost and could no otherwise be lost but by losing him in whom it lived Love is of that excellent nature that it is esteemed by the best of men and accepted from the meanest persons what then is the affection of a Father what is the purity of that fire which God and Nature kindles in the breast of man what were the flames which ever burnt upon the Altar of your Fathers heart who never hated any man See but the nature of Paternal love in David who when Absalom his Son but a most rebellious Son openly sought his life and Crown and dyed in that unnatural attempt went up into his chamber and wept and as he went thus he said O my Son Absalom my Son my Son Absalom would God I had died for thee O Absalom my Son my Son Measure by this example the affection you have so lately lost who never gave any offence as Absalom did and yet had in your Fathers eye all the reasons of love which Absalom could have Know then you make a mourning as Ioseph did for a Father that loved you remember that the love of Iacob was divided between twelve Sons and therefore though it was high it could not be whole and entire to Ioseph as for many years your Fathers hath been unto you Thirdly I speak not this out of design to renew or advance your grief to tell you what you have lost alone but I propound this privation that I may contrive it for your imitation endeavouring to stir up the same fire and to kindle the same affection in your self who now are wholly to be considered in the same relation What you were to him others are now to you and what he was to you you are now wholly unto them Before your natural affection was partly taken up with duty respect honor and obedience due to a Father from a Son it is now taken off from those expressions as to him that it may descend the more entire upon those which come from you as you from him Thus far you have been the Ioseph of the Text be now the Iacob that those two great names may be concealed not only in the Text but in your breast Thus far you have been the better part of Absalom learn now to be the David that we may truly say that tender affection that Paternal love dyed not with your Father but survives in you to your and his posterity Fourthly I desire you to look not only upon that which you have lost but also upon that which he hath left behinde him Vulgar and common persons as they carry nothing out of this world so they leave nothing in it they receive no eminency in their birth they acquire none in their life they have none when they die they leave none at their death But honorable persons as they die like common men so that only dieth with them which was common unto all degrees of men their singular respects the priviledges of their greatness their honors survive them and descend unto their Heirs with their Inheritance Give me leave then yet to speak unto you as to the Heir of your Fathers honors consider what the nature and design of honors are remember they were first graciously conferred as a reward of the virtues of your Ancestors and were as wisely continued upon a presumption and as an encouragement of the same virtues in their Successors Your Honor knows how long the greatness of your Family hath been preserved acknowledge first the vigilant providence and infinite goodness of God in the preservation of it while so many glorious Titles have been lost so many Noble Families cut off Next study to preserve and advance it further by the exercise of those virtues upon which it was first built and hath been since continued endevour to uphold not only your own but the very name of Honor in this Age in which partly the want of such virtues as are necessary to support it partly the weakness of that power which first gave life unto it partly the unreasonableness of foolish men who endeavour to cast a disesteem upon it have too much eclipsed the glory of it Lastly as I have advised you with the Son of Sirach to let tears fall upon the dead and to use lamentation as he is worthy so I shall conclude with his following advice when that is done then comfort thy self for thy heaviness that is not only be comfored after sorrow that consolation may succeed your griefs this is the common revolution of the world not only be comforted in lieu of your sorrow that consolation may recompense your griefs that were but a vulgar compensation but take comfort in your sorrow and rejoyce in your self that you have been so happy as to be truly sad There is so much deceitfulness in the heart of man so much hypocrisie in Funeral mourning that you may bless God for your own assurance of the sincerity of your natural affection and religious respect to your Parents and take delight in a just expectation that it will be rewarded by the future respect of your children So having performed the duty of Ioseph who made a mourning for his Father you may expect the blessing of Ioseph given by the mouth of Iacob for whom he mourned Ioseph is a fruitful bough even a fruitful bough by a Well whose branches run over the wall That this Benediction may be your Honors portion shall be my constant prayer By the God of thy Father who shall help thee and by the Almighty who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above blessings of the deep that lieth under blessings of the breasts and of the womb Amen Amen The End Psal. 77. 15. Gen. 49. 33. 50. 2 3. Gen. 50. 1. Gen. 49. 31. Act. 8. 2. Act. 9. 39. Psa. 90. 10. Gen. 47. 9. 28. Gen. 48. 10. Gen. 47. 29. Luk. 23. 28 Heb. 11. 10 13 16. Eccl. 22. 11. Eccl. 38. 16. Gen. 37. 3. Gen. 49. 1 48. Gen. 49. 26. Gen. 37. 34. Gen. 37. 35. Gen. 37. 35. Gen. 45. 27 28. Gen. 46. 30. Deut. 34. 2. Eccl. 22. 12. Numb. 19. 11. Exod. 20. 11. Gen. 2. 2. Gen. 8. 9 11. Gen. 2. 3. 2 Sam. 12. 7. Ephes. 6. 2. 2 Sam. 18. 33. Eccl. 38. 16 17. Gen. 49. 22. 25.