Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
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
|
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