They, the priests, who come near to minister before the Lord, shall come at no dead person; neither touch, nor come into the room, nor attend the funeral of the dead; for this would be a legal and ceremonial defilement, and it is prohibited Leviticus 21:1. The Jews tell us that he who comes within four cubits of the dead is defiled; and the law, though it determine not at what distance such are defiled, it doth determine that they are unclean till evening by touch or coming near the carcass of any but man, and the defilement by coming near a dead man lasted seven days. But for father, & c: the priest was indulged in the death of so near relations, as Leviticus 21:2,3, where they are reckoned up as ill this verse. They may defile themselves mourn for them, touch them, be at their funerals, and show their natural affections to them.

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