I find most remarkable in it is the place wherein he commanded the two Coffins for his Father and himself to be placed because the same could never by any industry be found out the inner part of the Vault or Cave being made in the fashion of a Labyrinth And History informs us that Herod being on a time obstinately resolved to find out this secret place commanded some of his Men to break down certain stones whose removal he thought might likely discover the concealed Royal Tombs but was soon affrighted from attempting further by the fire that issued forth in great flashes from it and consumed two of his Men upon the spot so that besides a rigorous Edict he published whereby he strictly enjoyned that for time to come none should dare to attempt a like re search he caused a very mean Sepulchre to be made hard by it for himself by way of reparation of the wrong he had offer'd to it NEITHER shall I speak here of the great Treasures found in those Sepulchres for none can be ignorant of the vast Riches of all kinds that were laid up therein who considers that those Places being lookt upon as sacred and inviolable among the Jews every one of them carried thither the most rare and precious things they had thinking them more safe there without Guards than in their own Houses or Coffers They were most commonly Lords and Persons of great Estates who did so as finding it too cumbersome for them to keep their Treasures at home by reason of their great Riches as likewise Widows and Orphans who were not capable of looking after and managing what was their own BUT besides those riches which were kept there for the use of the Living much was also enclosed in honour of the Dead Hence it was that the High Priest Hyrcanus seeing himself besieged within the City of Jerusalem by Antiochus Sirnamed Pious took out of David's Sepulchre nine hundred Years after his Death three thousand Talents whereof he gave a part to that Prince to make him retire with his Army and with the other he raised Souldiers in order to put himself in a condition of preventing the like disaster for time to come Out of which Sepulchre Herod a good while after took a great number of Vessels of Gold Jewels and other precious Ornaments From whence we may easily conclude that his Son Solomon had spared nothing to honour his Father's Memory In like manner we read in the Fourteenth Chapter of the Second Book of the Kings that the Chaldeans did in their Invasion of Judea open all the Princes Sepulchres for the sake of the Treasures they enclosed And Sozomene tells us that the Prophet Zachariah's Tomb being opened in his days a young Prince of the Royal Blood was found lying at his Feet with a Crown of Gold upon his Head and array'd in a most rich Robe and other Princely habiliments THERE are two principal Objections that may be made concerning these Funeral Ceremonies of the Jews which we shall here briefly endeavour to answer The first is How it comes to pass that so great honours were by them paid to the Dead since according to the Mosaick Law none could touch them without being polluted insomuch that those who took care of their Burial could have no fellowship with any till after they had washed and purified themselves To this all the Interpreters do unanimously answer that Moses his intent was not thereby to signifie that dead Bodies were abominable in themselves but that bearing the blemishes and stains of sin by their being deprived of life they were to purifie themselves who had touched them as if they had touched sin it self Death being its proper and natural effect and reward THE other Objection may be made concerning the honour of burning so often mentioned in the Scripture from whence some infer that the Dead amongst the Jews were sometimes consumed in the Fire but without any sufficient ground or reason for it nothing as hath been said being more contrary to the Custome of that People Wherefore we answer that those burnings mentioned in Scripture were quite of another nature and must not be understood of Corpses but of sweet-scented Woods and Perfumes which they consumed to a vast expence at the Funerals of their Kings and other Persons of the highest Quality CHAP. XVI Funerals of the Modern Jews IN the description I am about to make of the Funeral Rites of the Modern Jews I might be thought to amuse the Reader with an idle story but that they are well known to be authorized by the Talmud which next to the Holy Scripture is the Book of most esteem amongst them and daily practised by all those of that miserable Sect who live in these our days Nevertheless I must here advertise the Reader that though indeed that which I relate be not a Fable it being their constant belief and practice yet I shall have occasion to set down many things here that seem the most extravagant stories imaginable which for all that are the ground and foundation of these their Ceremonies BUT here we must needs observe some kind of order to clear a matter that is of it self very obscure and intricate by reason of a great number of punctilio's thereto belonging which they account very essential Therefore we shall first of all speak of their preparation for Death when they are Sick Next of their Death it self with their Funerals And last of all of their foolish Opinion concerning the Souls and Bodies after Death FIRST then As soon as a Jew is given over by the Physicians and they conclude he will die the Rabbi who has been called to take care of his Soul comes to him in company with ten other persons at the least and in the first place asks him whether he believes the Coming of the Messias whereto the Sick having answered in the affirmative he sits down at his beds head and the standers-by ranking themselves round about him he bids the Patient to make his Confession with a loud voice the Form whereof is as followeth I CONFESS and acknowledge before thee O Lord my God the God of my Fathers the strong and mighty God of every Spirit that quickens and gives life to Flesh That both my Life and Death are in thy hands therefore I pray thee to restore me to health to remember me and hear my prayers as thou didst those of King Hezekiah when he was sick But if this be the time of thy last visitation upon me and that I must die I beseech thee mercifully to receive me into that Paradise which thou hast prepared for the Just Shew me the streight way to go to Eternal Life and satisfie me with thy blessed presence Praised be thou for ever O Lord God who hearest the Prayers of thy Servants THIS Confession is accompanied with a publick Declaration of his sins though it be not so particular but that he may
keep to himself some things he thinks not fit to publish to all that are present which he afterwards whispers in the Ear of the Rabbi under pretence of asking him his advice touching the disposal of his Estate and making of his last Will and Testament WHEN this is done he offers publick satisfaction for all the injuries by him done or scandals occasioned either by his debaucheries violence or any private grudge or enmity begging pardon of all those whom he has offended and protesting that he likewise heartily pardons them who have done or intended him any wrong As for what concerns the satisfaction he is to make to GOD he offers him no other but that of his own Death as supposing the same will sufficiently expiate all his Sins Wherein he perhaps does not mistake though he interpret it in another sence for besides that temporal Death which is generally allotted to all Men for a punishment of their Sins he is in great danger to suffer an eternal one as a reward of his obstinacy and unbelief SOME after they have given this satisfaction desire the publick Prayers of the Synagogue and send as much money as they think fit to be distributed to the Poor There are others who besides these publick Prayers have their Name changed as a mark of their entire and absolute Conversion so that when they are pray'd for their former Name is not mentioned but that which they have assumed during their Death-bed-penance For example the Synagogue applying themselves to God on behalf of the Sick speak thus O Lord we beseech thee to have mercy on such a one he hath changed the Name he went by when he offended against thy Laws and is now called N. N. Do not therefore look upon him as an object of thy wrath for if thou hadst resolved to punish him as such now thou must not since he by this other Name he has assumed is become another man Whereupon we do hope that thou wilt hereafter consider him as a new Creature and as a Babe that is but newly born IN short if the sick person be in his Fathers house he craves his Blessing and if he himself is a Father of a Family he calls his Children and Domesticks unto him to Bless them THEN from that time forwards they dare never leave him alone because they perswade themselves that the Angel of Death which is in his Chamber would offer violence to him were there none present to prevent it Neither can they for all this so wholly oppose and hinder that evil Spirit but that he does him a great deal of mischief for as they tell us he with a naked Sword in his hand looks so frightful and terrible that the Sick is thereby much discomposed At this Sword hang three drops all of them very fatal to the Decumbent The first that falls on him gives him his Death the second changes his colour making him pale wan and gastly And the last rots and turns him to corruption so that he becomes noisom and stinking UPON his giving up of the Ghost all that are present do by rending their cloaths and crying as loud as ever they can express the greatest sorrow imaginable and immediately after they fling all the water they have then in the house out of the windows as being of opinion that this malignant Angel has wash'd his Sword in it wherewithal he killed him And all the neighbourhood under a like apprehension do the same Neither is there need of any other notice to make known to the rest of the Town or City that there is some body Dead in that part of it for this abundance of water poured forth on a sudden in the streets makes near as much noise as the ringing of our Bells BESIDES they have another Opinion concerning this Angel which is no less ridiculous They say that some of their most zealous Doctors not being able to endure that this Angel should so cruelly torment and afflict the People for they believe he was formerly much worse than he is now did by their continual prayers so far prevail with God that he deliver'd him into their hands whereupon they having most straightly bound him put out his left eye insomuch that being now half-blind he can no more do them so much harm as formerly NOW to prepare the Corps in order to its Burial they fetch fresh water the cleanest they can get which they boil with Camomil dry'd Roses and such like odoriferous and sweet-scented Herbs and Flowers wherein they wash it very carefully thereby to intimate that Death has not only purged him from all his filthiness but made him of a good and pleasant savour with God THIS done they apparel him in a white Tunick to signifie the innocence where with he now presents himself before the Tribunal of the Soveraign Judge They anoint his face with the yolk of an Egg dissolv'd and mixt with Wine thereby to shew that he shall not only taste of the joys and comforts of the other Life which are enclos'd in Gods bosom as the yolk of an Egg is in its shell but shall be made drunk therewith as not being able to be satisfied and continually drink the same in great draughts till he has by vomiting besmeared himself all over Then they put a Vail over his face thereby to signifie that since he is pass'd into the other World he is no more concerned to regard any thing in this They likewise cover his head with his Talled or short Cloak of Ceremony being in hopes that as it hath been subservient to him in this Life on every Holy-day to say his Prayers in the Synagogue so will it likewise serve him still in Heaven during the long Sabbath of Eternity and that he after having adorned it with the ornaments of the Blessed shall over and above crown the same with Glory Out of this Cloak they pull several Threads wherewith they tye his right Thumb bending and bowing it so as it may in some sort express the Name of God in the Hebrew Tongue they making no question but that with this Mark he is secure from all the assaults of the Devil who whilst he shall thus hold his hand can never drag him into Hell where this Holy Name is not owned or acknowledged and therefore it is that to tye this knot they make use only of those Threads which are taken from that sacred Cloak because they don't believe there can be any other strong enough for that purpose Last of all they lay him in a Coffin with two clean Sheets whereof the one is put under and the other over him making his head to rest upon a great stone or on a Bag filled with Earth To intimate by this hard Pillow the steadiness of that rest he shall enjoy in the other Life and by the cleanness of the sheets he lies on and is covered
of them having for his so doing particular reasons THEY that cast them into the Sea did it that they might the longer be preserved by the Salt and sharpness of that Water Those that flung them into Rivers would thereby intimate that as by the current of the Water they were carried into the vast Ocean so by the whole course of their lives they had been passing towards Eternity into which they were now at last launched by Death And they who committed them to Lakes which are standing Waters intended thereby to express the rest and repose the Dead meet with in the other World after all the tempests and traverses of this which is nothing else but a boisterous and raging Sea BESIDES those particular reasons they had some that were more general and common The first of which was that seeing the Dead turn to corruption and become very loathsome and filthy they perswaded themselves they could make no better provision against the said noisome putrefaction than by casting them into the water because that washeth and cleanseth every thing Another reason as Clemens Alexandrinus relates it was because the water being accounted a sacred Element they thereby thought to hallow and consecrate the Dead A third was that since according to Thales's opinion who was one of the Seven Wisemen of Greece all things were made and consisted of Water the Bodies of Men were by this means resolved into that first principle from whence they had their beginning And lastly because being for the most part People that inhabited the Sea-Coasts and fed generally upon Fish they conceived it but reasonable that their Bodies should after their death be the food of Fishes as during their life-time they had made them their nourishment AND so sweet and easie did many of them fancy this way of Burial to be and had so much respect for it that not being able to wait for their natural Death when in an orderly way they might be made partakers of it after having made themselves merry by excessive eating and drinking they went and cast themselves of their own accord either into the Sea or some River thereby to antedate their conceited bliss and happiness CHAP. XIII Airy Obsequies IT is a strange thing that the Gallows which by us is lookt upon as the most infamous of punishments should with some People be esteemed so honourable that they give no other Sepulchres to their dead Friends and which amongst others is had in such veneration that they grant this advantage only to their Soveraign Princes and great Lords I KNOW that Woods have been formerly had in great reverence and that they were accounted most Sacred Places not only from the testimony of profane Authors who give this character of them but this truth is also by several Texts of Scripture confirmed to us For we read in Genesis that Abraham planted a Wood in Bersabe where he called upon the Name of the Lord and that Jacob thought he could not give a more decent Grave to Deborah Nurse of his Wife Rebecca than by burying her under an old Oak INDEED this veneration for Woods and Solitary Places is in a manner natural for the Pagans themselves which were led only by the light of Nature have acknowledged this verity and amongst others Virgil speaks of all Woods and Forests as so many Temples In these our Druids erected Altars for their Sacrifices and here also it was all Antiquity believed the Gods made their usual abode For besides the Oreades or Nymphs of the Mountains the Dryades those of the Woods and the Fauns and Satyrs or Gods of the Fields we read that some of them were consecrated to Apollo others to Diana and such like pretended Divinities Whereupon Pausanias tells us that Persons of the highest Quality in ancient times had their Sepulchres in Woods and Plato was of opinion that none but Men of great worth and excellence ought to be interred there Cicero in his Defence of Milo takes the Woods to witness as being Holy places and the usual Coemeteries of great and virtuous Men. BUT if we ought to commend this custom of burying the Dead in the Woods which were formerly accounted very Sacred we must needs abhor the practice of those that profaned and polluted them by making them serve for Gallows and thereby exposing them to the character of the most infamous places imaginable Thus the Inhabitants of Colchos and the Tibarens a People of Scythia made a piece of Religion of it to hang the dead Bodies of their Relations upon Trees for an horror to Spectators and for a prey to the Fowls of Heaven and the ancient Goths and Swedes could think of no better way to shew the veneration they had for their Princes after death than by fixing them to a Gibbet Surely we must suppose these Men worse than Barbarians to fancy that an honour which indeed is the greatest infamy in the World and to esteem that a Religious and Pious duty which indeed is the extremest impiety and undutifulness that can be conceived What honour can a Body be thought to receive by suffering a loathsome corruption in the Air or by being exposed in a shameful nakedness which daily grows more ugly discoloured and frightful or to be tost to and fro and become the sport and may-game of the wavering Winds Certainly it appears to me that even according to the dictates of Nature nothing can be more horrid or inhumane This is the reason why our Laws appoint the same as a Punishment and just reward of the most hainous offenders and notorious Criminals and which makes as great an impression on our minds to deter us from like crimes as to see a Man lose his life by the hands of the Hang-man Neither can I imagine what way these barbarous People have to punish the wicked since they make use of Gallows to honour Persons of worth except one should say that being Barbarians Vice is had in esteem and veneration amongst them as Virtue is with us and that according to their natural brutishness they pay the Duty of Burial only to such who by their wicked actions have made themselves famous amongst them AGAIN what a fine show is it to see a Room hung full of dried Carkasses or Mummies Surely these are rarities that one would think cannot give much satisfaction or delight to those that have them continually in their Eyes It 's true that we preserve some Mummies amongst us which we consider rather as curious Figures than as humane Bodies that ever had life because they are from remotest Countries brought to us who never knew the least thing of the Persons they once were But there are none to be found how cruel soever he may otherwise be that ever went about to make such Mummies of his Friends or Relations in order to keep them in his House and continually have them before his eyes The sole Idea
a wonder in the in-side of which there were two Cypress-Chests or Coffins over-laid with Plates of Silver whereon the sign of the Cross was engraved and within the same were two Bodies apparel'd in Vestments of Cloth of Gold but so rich that besides four-score pounds weight of Silver which the Plates weighed the Gold of their Cloaths and other Ornaments amounted to sixteen Pound-weight The other Tomb was that of the Empress Mary Wife of Honorius which was discovered in the time of Pope Paul the Third and was likewise of Marble in which over and above the Gold which amounted to about forty Pound weight there were enclosed several curious Vessels of Crystal and Agate with many other rich Jewels As for the reasons why we dress the Dead they are very plain and obvious for besides that Nature teacheth us to cover the nakedness of humane bodies we do signifie thereby that they have by their death put on immortality and therefore the more rich those accoutrements are the more proper are they to represent those Heavenly Robes of Glory prepared for them NOR is it needful to have recourse to Antiquity for instances that may authorize the exposing of the Corps to publick view We herein follow Tradition which with us is instead of a Law and injoyns us to set the Body either in the Entry or the principal and most publick room of the House and that for two reasons The first that by this sight those that pass by may be taken off from Terrestrial things and fix their thoughts on those that are Heavenly by being thereby put in mind of their latter end The other to crave the Prayers and Suffrages for the Deceased that God may be merciful to them and without suffering them to languish in the torments of Purgatory receive them the sooner into the abode of the Blessed IT is the belief of this Bliss and Felicity which the Faithful enjoy after their Death makes us accompany them in a pompous Procession with Hymns and Lights We give all these marks of joy at Burials says S. Chrysostom in his Fourth Homily on the Epistle to the Hebrews because we consider the Dead as so many stout Champions that have couragiously fought and gloriously obtained the Victory Wherefore we give thanks to God for his having so powerfully supported them in all their needs and troubles deliver'd them from all the miseries of this Life made them triumph over all their Enemies and lastly for having banished all their fears by crowning them with Eternal Glory and Felicity And indeed this Procession has something in it of a triumphal March the Hymns or Songs are so many publick shoutings and acclamations and the Lights that shine every where do by their splendor much add to the glory of this Pomp. What can be more great and solemn says S. Jerom speaking of the Interment of Sancta Paula and S. Gregory Nyssen of that of his Sister than to see such a vast number of Persons consecrated to God cloathed in their Sacerdotal Ornaments and who by their gravity and the orderly and decent manner they proceed in look like so many Princes and are really so of a Kingdom far more glorious than any on Earth What is more charming and pleasing to the Ear than the melody concert of their Songs whereby they imitate the Angels who at the same time do with Hallelujahs and joyful Acclamations receive the Soul of the Departed In short what is more delightful to behold than the light of so many burning Tapers This artificial brightness giving us a weak Idea of that Eternally clear and shining day they meet with in Heaven We might here add many other reasons why our Funerals are attended with Lights as first That it is the emblem of Joy Honour and Life which are the three chief advantages of that Eternal Beatitude wherewith true Christians shall be rewarded in the other World Thither they pass as the Scripture expresseth it from the bitter waters of mortification and austerity to a river of pleasure and from contempt and humility to the highest degree of Glory in a word from Death to Eternal Life Secondly we make use of Lights on this occasion to put all the powers of Darkness to flight and to shew that Christians having never had any fellowship with those infernal Spirits which endeavour to hide all their actions but on the contrary exercised themselves in such works as deserve for their exemplariness to be set before the eyes of the whole World they are passed from one light to another that is from the amiable brightness of Virtue to the glory of its Reward In the third place to intimate that they have obey'd that Precept of our Lord which requires his Servants to be always ready with their Lamps burning that they may be prepared and in a posture to open to and follow him whenever he shall please to call upon them And last of all to signifie that they died in the light of Faith and that as they have in this life sought nothing but JESVS CHRIST who is the true Light so shall they possess the same in the other to all Eternity AT the head of this Pomp the Cross advanceth which is the Mark and Character of the Elect the Instrument of our Salvation and the Key of Paradise The most ancient Writers of our Religion tell us that it hath always been carried in great Solemnities and was the chief Ornament in all Pompous Ceremonies Besides that Constantine the Great caused it to appear at his Triumph as it did to him in the midst of the Fight and his Successors in the Empire do still in our days place it on the top of their Crowns Socrates and Sozomene tell us that in the very first Centuries it was seen at the head of all the Processions which the Orthodox made against the Arrians That S. Chrysostom caused some Silver-ones to be very curiously wrought for that purpose and that the Clergy never went forth in a Body neither at Constantinople nor any other City of the East without advancing the splendid Representations of that Sacred Wood. And to the end that Christians might never discontinue this holy Custom the Emperor Justinian established it by a Law as we may read in his 133. Novel Which Surius also confirms by a thousand instances of Antiquity It is not therefore to be wonder'd at that we carry it in all our Funeral Marches since it has ever been the Custom so to do in all Ceremonies and Pompous Solemnities whatsoever And I find there is more reason for it in this than in any other besides nothing less than the Kingdom of Heaven into which this alone can procure us an entrance being here at stake Thus we see in the Gospel that when the Soveraign Judge shall come down in the Clouds to give all men their Doom and Reward he shall cause this sign of our Redemption to go before him which shall be the touch-stone
from whence they could not procure their Bodies as for those that were present with them AND indeed how could they have omitted this Duty since the Gods themselves oft made it their particular care and business For if we will believe Homer Jupiter gave order to Apollo to inter the Body of Sarpedon whom Patroclus had kill'd Thetis buried Ajax her self as Lycophron reports And this Goddess was also by Jupiter sent to Achilles to command him on his behalf to deliver the Body of Hector that he might be interred He likewise at the same time dispatching Iris to Priam with orders to agree about the same with the Enemy for a summ of money Last of all he sent Mercury safely to guide this Prince by night through the Host to conclude the Treaty Moreover Homer assures us that the Children of Niobe whom the Gods caused to be slain were by them Buried nine days after BUT what I find more remarkable is the care that Bacchus took to bury the Body of Sophocles Pliny says that this Poet being Dead at Athens at the very time when the General of the Lacedemonians Lysander by name besieged that City this God several times appeared to him in a dream commanding him to raise the siege to the end the Athenians might be at liberty to pay their last Duty to this great Man whom he had always regarded as his Darling TO this we may add That there were three of their Principal Gods who took the care of Funerals Pluto Jupiter's Brother was worshipped only as Soveraign over the Dead upon which account it was that his Temples were only open'd at night He was call'd Summanus that is the Supream God of Manes or Departed Souls NOR was Venus less concern'd to see Men buried than she was for their being begotten and for this reason they kept in the Temples that were consecrated to her under the name of Libitina that is to say the Goddess of the Shades all such things as were requisite and necessary at Funerals as Winding-sheets Biers and Instruments both to dig Graves and erect Monuments withal for all manner of Tools were not indifferently to be made use of on this occasion since the employing other than those that were consecrated to that service would have been lookt upon as a kind of profanation AND last of all Mercury's charge was to receive those shades whose Bodies were but newly interred and lead them into the Elysian Fields or elsewhere according as they had deserved he driving before him with his Golden Rod this Troop of Ghosts like a Flock of Sheep And for a further proof that it was the will of the Gods that this pious Duty should be performed to the Dead I might here observe that they themselves commonly punished those that denied this Right or did any the least injury to them And on the other hand they most bountifully rewarded such as signalized themselves by this piety WE read in Horace of the Astrologer Archytas who was cast away at Sea that his dead Body being by the Waves driven to the shore his Ghost threaten'd all that past by who did not throw a handful of Earth upon him with the like misfortune after their Death besides several other miseries during their life-time WE also read in a Greek Writer of Epigrams that some Persons having found a dead Man's Skull most of them fell a weeping and that there was only one of the Company who laugh'd and flouted and through an unheard-of Cruelty flung stones at it which stones by a strange wonder rebounding back to his Face wounded him very much BUT on the contrary the Poet Simonides having met in his way on the Sea-shore a dead Body as he was about to go on Ship-board in order to an intended Voyage desir'd the Master of the Ship to stay till the next day that he might have time to bury the same which proved a great good fortune to him for that night the Ghost of the Dead having warn'd him in a Dream not to proceed on his Voyage he accordingly did not embark in that Vessel which miscarried at Sea together with all that were on Board her AND was not that poor Fisher very lucky and his Piety well rewarded who leaving his Nets to go and bury a Corps as he was digging a Grave for it found a Treasure that made him rich for ever after NOW whether these things fell out by chance or otherwise however it is enough for us to observe that the Ancients were perswaded instances of this nature were the effect of the grateful acknowledgment of the Dead and that the Duty of Burial was founded upon the Will of the Gods and consequently considered by them as indispensable and inviolable it being a principal point of their Religion And indeed the very same Priests who taught them the Service of the Gods taught them also all their Funeral Ceremonies I KNOW some have been of opinion that Priests were forbidden to meddle with the Dead and that the sight only of a Corps deprived them of their Office and ranked them with the Laity This is the Sentiment of Aulus Gellius and Fabius Pictor who ground their Opinion upon this That Augustus being High-Priest at the time when he pronounced the Funeral Oration in praise of Agrippa caused a Curtain to be drawn between him and the Corps that he might not see it But besides that this appears to have been done only with regard to the tender love he bare to his Friend and Favourite lest the sight of that mournful object giving occasion to his sighs and tears might have interrupted his Speech Dion who mentions this very passage in his History and was well acquainted with all the Roman Ceremonies having himself been Senator and twice Consul does expresly say that this was not because of his Priesthood for it is not true that it was unlawful for Priests to look upon dead Bodies and that he never could guess at the reason why that Emperor order'd a Vail to be drawn before him whilst he was delivering his Oration BUT do not the same Aulus Gellius and Fabius Pictor contradict themselves who in another place own that Augustus for all he was High-Priest went to meet and accompany the Body of Drusus Father of Germanicus and that he did not leave it till he had paid him at Rome all the Funeral Honors he thought due to him MORE such like instances we have in Tacitus concerning Tiberius who though he was but newly elected High-Priest at the time when he entered upon the Government did nevertheless attend the Funeral of his Predecessor and of several other Persons of Quality whom he had a respect for APPIAN who describes the Funeral Pomp of Sylla tells us that all the Priests and Vestals accompanied it And Plutarch in the Life of Numa assures us that after his Death the Priests followed his Body to the
XV. The Funeral Rites of the Ancient Jews 180 XVI Modern Jews 198 XVII Schismaticks 234 XVIII Christians 243 XIX A Discourse concerning the Right of Burial and Laws on that behalf 271 THE FUNERAL RITES AND CEREMONIES OF ALL NATIONS CHAP. I. Funerals of the Egyptians I DESIGNING to treat of the Funeral Rites of all Nations shall begin with those of the Egyptians because that People has always been acknowledged for the most ancient and from whom Laws Arts Sciences and Ceremonies were first deriv'd to other Countries Assoon as any one was dead amongst them the Funeral Officers which were three viz. the Clerk the Anatomist or Dissector and the Embalmer presented themselves to the Kinsmen and Relations of the Departed and after they had agreed upon the price for according to the expence they were willing to be at they diversly treated the Corps the Clerk set down upon a paper or marked on the Body it self the Parts that were to be opened viz. the Flanks on the left side Then the Anatomist made the incision and forthwith ran away because the standers-by did most commonly fling stones at him as abhorring to see him exercise this seeming cruelty upon their Friend or Relation At last the Embalmer drew forth all the Intrails but the Heart and Kidneys and after he had washt the Body very well he inwardly anointed it with a composition of all sorts of sweet-scented drugs and spices except Frankincense because that was by them consecrated to the Gods and most commonly the chief ingredients of this ointment were Myrrh and Cassia This done he with an Iron-hook pull'd out all the brains through the Nostrils and fill'd up the void space with Aromatical drugs AS for the remaining Duties they were perform'd by the kinsmen of the Deceased who assoon as these Publick Officers had done their part and withdrawn themselves took the Corps and laid it in Salt where they let it abide for the space of seventy days at the end of which they washed it very carefully and then neatly sow'd up again the incision which the Anatomist had made afterwards they anointed it outwardly all over with a certain Gum wrapt it in swathing-bands of very fine linnen which by reason of the foresaid glutinous ointment stuck close to the body and so they shut it up in carved and painted wooden frames which were made for that purpose NOW these Corpses thus ordered and embalmed which we call Mummies some kept in their houses others shut them up in some Repositories under ground made in the fashion of little vaulted rooms into which the descent was through a round or square hole like unto that of a Well over which they erected a large stone in manner of a pillar loaded it with many garlands and embraced it a thousand times giving the Deceased their last Adieus I HAD almost forgot to mention that in carrying the Body to the grave both men and women made very horrid lamentations and outcries tearing their cloaths and uncovering their breasts which they bruised with many reiterated strokes But these bewailings were far more extraordinary upon the Death of any of their Kings the mourning continuing no less than seventy two days during which time all manner of rejoycings and festivals were forbidden they all bedawbed their faces with mire and dirt walked in troops together along the streets without any thing but a linnen-cloth wrapt about them mixing the Name of their deceased Prince with their sighs and out-cries They abstained from wine and delicate meats deny'd themselves the use of baths and perfumes they did not so much as make their beds nor accompany with their Wives and express'd all the signs of an extraordinary affliction BUT it is to be observ'd that before they paid him these Funeral Obsequies they caus'd all his actions to be very narrowly scann'd and examin'd by the Judges and that in the presence of the People and in case their doings were adjudged bad and unaccountable they deprived him of Burial which they never granted their Prince in the manner as before mentioned but when by a general consent his Government and Conduct were approved of as good For then they erected a sumptuous Monument for him or laid him in that which he had prepared for himself whilst yet alive upon which monumental Structure they lavish'd a prodigious treasure as the remains of their Pyramids do abundantly testifie which at this day are matter of astonishment to all that behold them and were not without great reason by Antiquity reckon'd amongst the Wonders of the World INDEED they were such Buildings as were never elsewhere to be found Neither is it at all likely that any King at this day could go to the charge of them since besides three hundred and seven thousand men who for the space of twenty years were employed in building one of them and eighteen hundred Talents spent only in Turnips and Onions the invention of those Engines whereby they hoisted up so vast stones to such an incredible and prodigious height is quite lost MOST of these Mausoleums or costly and magnificent Structures are made in the fashion of Pyramids and are no less admirable without than within There is one of them that is mounted by two hundred and eight steps and is six hundred and fourscore and two foot broad and six hundred and twenty foot high In a word it is so high that though the top of it be sixteen foot square yet it does shew to those that are beneath as sharp as the point of a needle The entrance into it is through a little door three foot and six inches high and three foot and three inches broad Next you advance through a passage of the same dimensions where first you meet with a descent of sixty steps and after that again an ascent of about an hundred at the end of which you enter into a little Gallery and through that into a Hall in the midst of which stands the Tomb all of one piece and of a stone as fair to look upon and as hard as Porphyre the whole Hall being lined with the same These things might seem incredible were they not confirm'd by all them that have travelled into those Parts The Inhabitants of that Country call these huge Buildings Pharaoh's Mountains by reason of their prodigious height being no less wonderful for the immenseness of their Bulk than for the richness of the Matter of which they are made HERODOTVS tells us that one of their Kings Micerin by name caus'd a Tomb to be made for his Daughter which was no less astonishing than the foregoing He having no children but her and seeing himself by her death deprived of Heirs spared nothing which might express how sensibly he was touched with this loss and endeavoured to immortalize her memory by the most superb and sumptuous structure he could possibly devise Instead therefore of a Monument he order'd a Palace to
was accounted so sacred amongst them that the Athenians condemn'd several great Captains to death because they had cast the Bodies of some that were kill'd in a Sea-fight into the Sea Upon this score it was that their General Nicias caus'd his whole Army to make a halt till they had interr'd two private Souldiers who died in the march And the Illustrious Cimon son of Miltiades made no difficulty to give himself up a prisoner into the hands of his Fathers Creditors who had after his Death seised his Corps to deprive it of the honour of Burial 'T IS matter of wonder that Burying the Dead having been for some time in so great veneration amongst them they should all on a sudden abolish that custom and instead thereof commit their Corps to the devouring flames For it was they who invented that hideous ceremony of Wood-piles and were the first that turn'd those into Ashes after their Death whom they had during their lives most dearly beloved This we learn from Lucian who laughs at that custom and Homer in many places of his Iliads abundantly confirms it who to give us a perfect Idea of those Ceremonies sets down very particularly the Honours that were done to the body of Patroclus Telling us that Achilles having order'd the whole Army to be ranged in battel-array round about the Wood-pile caus'd twelve young Gentlemen Trojans to have their heads cut off besides a vast number of Oxen Horses Sheep Dogs and other beasts which were butchered and their bodies confusedly laid about the Corps of his Friend and last of all he himself having cast his Hair which he had cut off with his own hand into the flames all was consum'd amidst the lamentable cries of the whole Army CHAP. III. Funerals of the Romans THE Romans having succeeded to the Grecians in the Empire of the World as they received from them many of their Laws and Manners so most of their Ceremonies But to the end we may not swerve from our Subject we shall only observe how they were Imitators of the Grecians in the disposing of their Dead for both of them at the first buried afterwards burned them and at last abhorring those horrid Solemnities they introduc'd again the custom of interring them Their History acquaints us that the former Burials lasted from Romulus who was the Founder of their City to the tyrannous Dictatorship of Sylla who having caus'd the Bones of his Enemy Marius to be digged out of his Grave and fearing that the like affront might be done to him after his Death he by an express Law made for that purpose and many pompous Ceremonies engaged the People to burn their Dead to ashes which were afterwards gathered and shut up in Urnes This Law was observ'd until the Empire of the Antonin's who being Philosophers and Virtuous Princes could not endure that this kind of cruelty should be any longer exercised upon Humane Bodies and therefore did abolish the use of Wood-piles and restor'd the former way of Burying WHEN the sick was at the point of Death his nearest Relation drew nigh unto him waiting till he gave the last gasp which he receiv'd with his open Mouth and then shut his Eyes provided he were not a Son of the Deceased for the Manian Law forbad Children to close their Father's eyes And the same Kinsman did open them again after that the Funeral Officers had done their duty that is to say after they had washt him well cloathed him with his own cloaths and laid him in the Tomb or on the Wood-pile Some say that the reason why they closed the Eyes of those who were a dying was that they might not see the affliction which they caus'd to the standers-by and that they open'd them in the Grave to the end they might behold the Beauty of Heaven which was the abode they wish'd them to all Eternity THE manner of accompanying the Corps of one of the common People to the Grave was very plain and simple but when the Person was of great Quality the pomp and state they used was very extraordinary The march usually began with a long row of the Statues of his Ancestors dressed in their Apparel and Robes of State viz. in Consular Robes if they had been rais'd to that Dignity in the Pretexta if they had commanded in the Army in Purple if they had been Censors or in Cloth of Gold if they had ever enjoyed the highest honours of Triumph After these Statues of his Ancestors followed his own with all the marks and signals of the Employments he had discharg'd or Honours he had obtained viz. Bundles of Rods Axes Garlands of Laurel or Oak and those Coronets which were called Muralis and Civica the former of which being given as a mark of honour to those who had first scal'd a Wall and entred the City the other to them who had preserved a City from the power of the Enemy or saved the Life of any Citizen And to all these they sometimes added the representations of the Cities or Provinces they had conquer'd Next came all his Domesticks in mourning and were followed by Musicians who plaid to a sad and doleful Tune the Instruments being diverse according to the age of the Persons for they made use of Pipes only for young People and of Trumpets for the ancient These Instruments went immediately before the Corps which was carried by the Vespillo's so call'd because they never buried the Dead but in the dusk of the Evening or at Night and was follow'd by a throng of the Relations and Friends of the deceased who had a company of young Boys and little Girls at the head of them the former of which had their heads cover'd with a black Vail and the latter went bare-headed with all their Hair spread about their Ears All these marched in great order through the care which was taken by the Designators or Masters of Ceremonies IN the beginning of their State they were wont after they had attended the Corps abroad to bring them into their Houses and there interred them from whence arose that great veneration they had for their Penates or Houshold-Gods which were nothing else but the Ghosts of those that belonged to their Family But this custom did not last very long not only because of the horror which the continual presence of the Dead caused to the Living but also by reason of the infection and ill scents arising from them Which gave occasion to a Law whereby it was enacted that thenceforth no Dead should be buried in the City much less kept in their Houses as they did before that Priviledge being only granted to Vestals to Emperors and those who had been Triumphators THE common place of Burial was the Via Flaminia or Latina that is the Flaminian or Latin Road Where as soon as they were arriv'd one of the Relations standing in the midst of the company who
of honour they could possibly express whenever they chanced to meet with any of them in the Streets but also gave them the first places in all Assemblies both in their Temples and Theatres They had always a Gentleman-Usher going before them yea so great deference was given to their presence that if they accidentally met with a Criminal led to the place of Execution he could not then be put to Death this happy encounter procuring the poor wretch his Pardon THERE was also the greatest care imaginable taken in the choice of them They never consecrated any to this high charge but from Six Years of Age to Ten. Moreover they were to be without any blemish neither stammering deaf crooked lame nor maimed Their Parents also were to be free having never been bound in any sort of Servitude or imploy'd in base and mean Offices for their Father was to have been either a Priest Augur or Epulo The Girl who had all these advantages was by her Relations conducted to the Porch of the Temple of Vesta where she was received by the High Priest who consecrated her for the space of thirty Years to the service of that Goddess during which time she was to keep her Virginity inviolable Men were not suffer'd to speak with them except in the Day-time and very severe punishments were decreed against those who entred their Lodgings by Night WHEN they happened to Decease in this state of Virginity they were not only Buried with great Pomp but had also the peculiar priviledge allowed them as well as Heroes of having their Tombs within the City BUT on the contrary when any of them was found guilty of breaking her Vow by incontinency and whoredom as it was look'd upon as one of the greatest misfortunes that could befall the City so was she likewise severely punisht for it by the most shameful Burial in the World They laid her all at length on a Bier as if she had been Dead cover'd all over with many Cloaths which were tied fast and close about her that she might be neither seen nor heard And being thus swadled about she was carried from the Temple of Vesta to the Gate call'd Collina attended by her Relations and Friends all in tears after them came the Priests with sad and dejected looks without speaking one word Hard by this Gate within the Walls there was a little hillock and underneath it a very deep Cave which served for a Grave to the unchast Vestals As soon as they were arriv'd at this place the poor wretch was loosed of her Swadling-cloaths and nothing left her save a great Vail which cover'd her Head and Face that she could not be seen Then she was taken down from the Bier and the High Priest having mutter'd a few words with his back towards her she was taken by the Executioner and let down by a Ladder to the bottom of this Grot or Cave where was set ready for her a Bed a burning Lamp and a little Bread with three Pots full of Water Milk and Oyl and having stopt the hole there they let her perish without any pity for it was not lawful for them to shed their blood And so solemn was the Mourning on these Days that none durst either work or divert themselves neither was any thing to be heard throughout the whole City but sighing cries and lamentations CHAP. IV. Funerals of the Persians IT is matter of astonishment considering the Persians have ever had the renown of being one of the most civilized Nations in the world that notwithstanding they should have used such barbarous customs about the Dead as are set down in the Writings of some Historians and the rather because at this day there are still to be seen among them those remains of Antiquity which do fully satisfie us that their Tombs have been very magnificent And yet nevertheless if we will give credit to Procopius and Agathias the Persians were never wont to bury their Dead Bodies so far were they from bestowing any Funeral Honours upon them But as these Authors tell us they exposed them stark naked in the open fields which is the greatest shame our Laws do allot to the most infamous Criminals by laying them open to the view of all upon the high ways Yea in their opinion it was a great unhappiness if either Birds or Beasts did not devour their Carcases and they commonly made an estimate of the Felicity of these poor Bodies according as they were sooner or later made a prey of Concerning these they resolved that they must needs have been very bad indeed since even the Beasts themselves would not touch them which caused an extream sorrow to their Relations they taking it for an ill boding to their Family and an infallible presage of some great misfortune hanging over their heads for they perswaded themselves that the Souls which inhabited those Bodies being dragg'd into Hell would not fail to come and trouble them and that being always accompanied with the Devils their Tormentors they would certainly give them a great deal of disturbance AND on the contrary when these Corpses were presently devoured their joy was very great they enlarged themselves in praises of the Deceased every one esteemed them undoubtedly happy and came to congratulate their relations on that account For as they believed assuredly that they were entered into the Elysian Fields so they were perswaded that they would procure the same bliss to all those of their Family THEY also took a great delight to see Skeletons and Bones scatered up and down in the fields whereas we can scarcely endure to see those of Horses and Dogs used so And these remains of Humane Bodies the sight whereof gives us so much horror that we presently bury them out of our sight whenever we find them elsewhere than in Charnel-houses or Church-yards were the occasion of their greatest joy because they concluded from thence the happiness of those that had been devoured wishing after their Death to meet with the like good luck THE same Historians inform us that when any private Souldier was sick in their Armies and in outward appearance past recovery they carried him to the next Wood or Forest leaving with him only a piece of Bread a little Water and a Stick that he might as long as he should have any strength defend himself from the wild Beasts which most commonly devour'd these poor wretches and if it chanced that any one of them escaped and came back to his own house all the people ran away from him as if they had seen some Ghost or Devil and did not suffer him to converse with any body till after he had been purified and expiated by the Priests as if having been so near Death he were thereby according to their opinion become unfit to live any longer for they supposed that he must needs have had great converse with Daemons since notwithstanding his extream sickness he had been
able to defend himself against the wild Beasts and recover'd his strength without any man's help or assistance AND howsoever barbarous and inhumane these customs may seem to us yet were they amongst them so strictly observ'd that they condemned to Death one of their most Illustrious Captains called Seosez only because he had interred his Wife Burial amongst them having as they said always been contrary to the Religion of their Country And for further confirmation of what hath been said the Historian Menander assures us that one of the Principal Conditions in the Treaty of Peace concluded between the Emperor Justian and Cosrhoez one of their Kings was that the Christians of his Kingdom should be permitted to bury their Dead NEITHER did they less abominate the Burning of the Dead which was the cause why in the beginning of that Monarchy King Cambyses had well nigh made his People to rise in Rebellion against him for having caus'd the body of Amasis King of Egypt to be digg'd out of his Grave and afterward Burnt with great pomp and ceremony they openly declaring that this was to give a very dangerous example to Posterity since instead of being a Conservator of the Laws of the Land which did not allow either of Burials or Burning he was the first that brake them HOWEVER not to dispute the veracity of the forementioned Historians certain it is that this inhumane custom of exposing the Dead was never long in use amongst the Persians For besides that stately piece of Antiquity call'd the Forty Pillars whereof the magnificent Remains are seen in these our days in the very same place where the famous Persepolis once stood we read in Cicero's Tusculan Questions as likewise in Strabo and Herodotus that in time past these People were wont to cover the Corpses with Earth only without any other ceremony or expence or else after they had covered them over with Wax to preserve their shape and figure shut 'em up sometimes in Caves and hollow places of Rocks and sometimes in Tombs And Xenophon puts us out of all doubt concerning this matter when he tells us that Cyrus expresly forbad his Children to put up his Corps in any rich Coffin but barely to commit it to the ground The same thing is confirmed to us by Justin and Quintus Curtius speaking of old Darius Son to Hystaspes and Father to Xerxes who says he having subdu'd the Carthaginians abolish'd the Custom they had of Burning their Dead and instead thereof ordain'd That of Burials The other viz. Quintus Curtius in the exact Description he gives of the Defeat of the latter Darius and the Conquest of his Country by Alexander the Great tells us that this incomparable Conqueror having totally routed and destroy'd the Persian Army at the Pillars of Amanus upon the News he received that the King was kill'd there presently dispatch'd Leonatus one of his principal Courtiers to his Mother and Wife to condole with and comfort them and that these Princesses in the trouble and confusion wherein they were by reason of their extream affliction thinking at first that he was sent thither to dispatch them fell down at his feet and with tears besought him not to slay them before they had buried the Body of that poor unhappy Prince Which Opinion is the more confirmed because Alexander having afterwards deliver'd Bessus who had kill'd Darius into these Princesses hands they thought they could not inflict upon him a more cruel punishment than by causing his Body to be cut into a thousand pieces and scattered abroad in the Fields We also learn from Appian and Plutarch that Artaxerxes having made the Chief of the Grecian Commanders his prisoners who had taken the Party of his Brother Cyrus against him caus'd them to dye a shameful death and exposed their Corpses to the devouring Beasts So that we must needs conclude that at least in those days the casting abroad of Dead Bodies was accounted a Punishment and not an Honour amongst them DURING the time of their Mourning they wore cloaths of a brown colour and not only the Men and Women were shaved and had their hair cut off but generally all their Beasts and Cattle were shorn too But as they have in these latter Ages embrac'd the Law of Mahumet so have they altered their Customs and Ceremonies They can bury no Body except they have first demanded and obtain'd the King's Leave for it or if they be too far from the Court the Lord Lieutenant's or Principal Magistrates which asking of Leave is but a Formality it being never denied Assoon as this is granted if the Party be never so little considerable they carry some Standards before his Corps which are followed by Saddle-horses charged with their Arms viz. Swords Darts Arrows and Turbants Those that lead these Horses are naked to the Wast Then come their Friends who besides their nakedness give themselves large gashes out of which the bloud runs from all parts They all march before the Body round about which their Priests are singing Dirges or Prayers for the Dead which are interrupted and blended with the sad lamentations of the deceased parties Relations who follow after the Corps at the head of a great throng of people who have all their Turbants untied and hanging loose on their shoulders In this order they proceed till they come to a River or any other place where much water is and there wash the Body having first placed it under a Tent. Then they march on towards the place of Burial which is most commonly a Mosquee in case the Person deceased be of Quality or if of a low rank the next Church-yard As for their Kings they are all intombed by themselves in a particular Mosquee which is covered without with green Tiles and within with plates of Silver their Tombs being ranged all along the wall in a most curious order and over-laid with the most rich Silk Stuffs and cloth of Gold that can be had CHAP. V. The Funerals of the Turks HAVING just now spoken of the Mahometans with respect to their Ceremonies about the Dead we shall now to avoid confusion proceed to the Funerals of the Turks who are the principal Sect among them IT is not a hard matter with them to know how many dye in a City For as soon as any one is Dead the Women begin with loud cries to bewail them and by this sad noise they gather their Neighbours together who continue the same doleful Lamentations relating with tears in their Eyes the good and noble Actions of the Deceased And these Lamentations which may be heard very far off are continu'd to the very Place where the Corps is design'd to be buried Which mourning solemnity some do recommence at the Years end and so continue the same by intervals for several Years together proportionably to the Love they bear to the Party deceased They carry also many good things and varieties
his own Souldiers to be severely punished in Syria only for having open'd the Grave of a Jewish Physician upon the hopes of finding some treasure there fourteen of which were hang'd three empaled and the rest put to death by divers Torments BESIDES the same Emperor seeing many Graves of the Christian Princes in Jerusalem who under Godfrey of Bouillon did recover the Holy Land from the hands of the Turks and who had been the cause of so great defeats they had received in several bloudy Battels did nevertheless under great penalties prohibit the touching or disturbing of them For said he all Graves even those of our Enemies are esteemed in our Religion as Sacred things In short they are so tender and nice in this Point that they will not suffer any body on horseback to ride through their Church-yards Which was the reason why Monsieur de Villamonté hardly escaped being ston'd to death in the same City because he had rid through a Place where some poor Turks were formerly Buried the Place being still accounted Sacred by them though there was not the least sign of any Grave there MOREOVER they account it one of the greatest misfortunes that can possibly befal them to be depriv'd of Burial Thus we read that that famous General Zubienzar who continued the siege of Constantinople for seven years together being shot with an Arrow and finding himself ready to give up the Ghost charged his Souldiers couragiously to continue the Attaque till they had laid his Body so deep in the ground that his Foes might not be able to discover and find out the place where he was Buried And it was upon the same account that Solyman dying in the territories of the Christians into which he was advanced with a potent Army designing to spoil and make havock of them strictly commanded his Captains to convey his Body into his own Dominions that the Christians might not offer any injury to his Tomb. BUT what does fill me with greater wonder is the respect which one of their Princes Noradine by Name had for the Sepulchre of Baudouin the Third King of Jerusalem for he being dead at Beryte and his Body with great pomp carried from thence to the Burying place of his Ancestors some advised him to take that opportunity to invade the Christian Countries and avenge himself of the many affronts he had receiv'd from them But so far was he from acquiescing in their advice which seem'd very promising and advantageous that he reproached them with the little respect and consideration they had for the Dead adding that for his part he had rather lose the Empire of the World than disturb the Grave of any one whatsoever CHAP. VI. Funerals of the Chineses NEVER were any People in the World so nice and scrupulous in this Matter as the Chineses For they not only every one of them keep in their houses a Book containing all the Rites and Ceremonies used at their Burials which they read over as oft as any one is Dead to the end they may the more exactly pay every the least punctilio of Duty and Honour due to the Deceased and rather love to exceed what is prescribed in the said Ceremonial than to omit any the least circumstance therein set down But though their Mourning be very long and tedious it lasting no less than three years and very troublesome as tying them to the strict observation of most severe Laws yet none amongst them has to this day ever complain'd of their rigour but on the contrary they think themselves most happy if they can but return their Parents an acknowledgment suitable to the pains they have taken for them in their infancy in bewailing them the space of three whole years because during the same term of time they took so much care of their education in their most tender and helpless years They cut off part of their Hair and dress themselves in a course linnen-cloth they are never seen at publick Sports and solemn Rejoycings they cease from prosecuting their Adversaries and suing for Judgment against them and if they be Magistrates they lay down their Office during the whole time of their Mourning and he would be esteem'd a most base and infamous person who should omit the least of these circumstances Besides Children are not permitted to marry before they are out of Mourning and if any during this time contract a marriage in private and it come to the Justice's knowledge besides the fine laid upon them the Marriage is declar'd void Neither is it lawful for those that are married to lie with their Wives there being penalties appointed by the Law against such Women as are found with Child within the foresaid interval In short all manner of rejoycing is during all that time so strictly forbidden that they who ride on horseback are not permitted to use a Collar of Bells wherewith they adorn their Horses though they be so much in fashion there among Travellers that neither rich nor poor do ever ride without them AS for the Fathers mourning for their Children Brothers for Brothers and Nephews for Uncles it does not last so long But the mourning of a Husband for his Wife or Wife for her Husband is as long and tedious as is that forementioned of the Children for their Parents THE first Duty they pay to their Deceased Relation after they have closed his Eyes is to furnish two Tables with all sorts of Meats and the best Wine one whereof they set near the Bed on which the Dead is lying his Kinsmen and Friends discoursing him and inviting him to eat and drink with them as if he were still alive and the other in the Anti-chamber which is no less well deck'd and provided for the entertainment of those that come to condole with them But true it is that these Viands that are equally dainty are eaten in a very different manner Some hours after the Table spread for the Relations of the Deceased is taken away little of the Meat being touch'd because these poor Creatures in the midst of their affliction and at the sight of so sad and doleful an object find more ease and satisfaction in weeping than in eating whereas the other though plentifully and splendidly furnish'd is scarce sufficient for the Guests who for the most part are smell-feasts and good-fellows that repair thither rather to make good cheer and stuff their bellies than to express any sorrow for or share in the affliction of the Family THEY keep the same Feasts also though they be far from their own Country as soon as they are informed of the Death of any of their near Relations Upon the first news they receive of it they cause the Name of the Dead to be written on a board to which they address themselves and speak as if the Body were present and make all the haste they can to recover home in order to acquit themselves in their Duty And in
Puissant King who having laid down his life in this World to enjoy Immortality in the other and consequently devested himself of all his Estates and Dominions in favour of his Children without reserving any thing to himself of all those immense Estates he possess'd here And it being nois'd abroad that he is now solitary and wandring in a strange Country without Souldiers to guard him without Horses or Elephants wherewithal to defend himself Without a Train and Equipage suitable to his Grandeur and without a Palace for the place of his abode the report of this sumptuous Building has drawn us hither with intention to purchase it If therefore he be willing to part with it whom it belongs to he will very much consult his own interest in so doing we being resolved to spare nothing to procure it that thereby we may express the love we have still for our deceased Father To which the people that are within answer in a like musical tone that they are fully satisfied with the offer and thereupon the price being agreed on both hands the Prince makes his entrance into and takes possession of it in the Name of his Father After this placing himself in the Tent Royal if it be an Army encamped or in the chief City if it be a Kingdom or in the Palace if it be only a City he there together with his whole Court hear kneeling the recital of the old King's Life which being ended he causes the Machines to be set on fire amidst the confused noise of Trumpets and other Instruments AS for the magnificence of their Graves it is such as cannot be sufficiently described Nothing like or near it has not only ever been seen in Europe or recorded in History but it is even hard to imagine what we are told concerning it by those that have seen them Anthony de Faria a Portuguese who in his Voyages accidentally discover'd and landed in this concealed Isle where their Royal Tombs are has left us a most stupendious account of them He calls the Isle Calempluy which he says lies at the mouth of a large River where it disembogues it self into the Sea in the extream parts of China Eastward being a place which by rocks is made in a manner inaccessible and which the lofty Cliffs that surround it on every side do conceal from the Eye of those that sail by it the swift current of the River contributing also very much to its secrecy He adds that that Isle is but a mile round and is environ'd on the water-side with a wall of Jasper flanked with a rampart of Earth on the top of which there is a Walk or Gallery faced with Balusters of bright shining Copper with several intermixed Pillars of the same Metal and behind them at a convenient distance the figures of abundance of Animals of molten Copper almost of all the kinds that can be found which make one side as the Balusters the other of a most curious and delightful Gallery Within the precincts of which you see nothing but little Groves of Orange-trees and other the most delightful and sweet-smelling Trees with several Temples and Hermitages IT is in these Temples and Hermitages they deposite the Bones of their Kings and other Princes of the Royal Bloud which are built not only of Marble Porphyre and Jasper but with variety of other Stones which with us are accounted precious both because of their beauty and rarity Neither are their Coffins less rich the matter whereof they are made being Gold or Silver besides the vast Treasures inclosed in them These Coffins are always attended by Hermits who continually pray for the Dead being themselves persons of the highest Quality for none are sent thither but great Lords who seeing themselves arrived to a great Age are glad to retire and end their days at their Princes Graves thereby hoping to anticipate their favour and procure for themselves to be their Courtiers in the other World as they have been in this There are also many young Gentlemen who by some misdemeanours being fallen into disgrace at Court take for a great favour to have the liberty of going and retiring themselves for ever in these delightful Hermitages where they make it their business to supplicate those Illustrious Deceased to make their peace with the King that they be re-admitted to his Grace and favour CHAP. VII Funerals of the Americans THE Inhabitants of America always took a particular care to bury their Dead because they believed that on that Ceremony depended the rest of the Soul departed They were all of them generally perswaded of the Souls immortality though to this truth which Nature taught them they added a thousand Fables of their own invention THEY fancied almost as many different places for the Dead as there were different kinds of deaths as well as different sorts of crimes For example they were of opinion that good and honest Men as those that had been kill'd in Battels or had devoted themselves to be a Sacrifice in honour of their Gods went directly after their Death to the House of the Sun which they placed near that Luminary This was the highest degree of happiness among them As for the wicked they said that they remained here below on the Earth and were yet more unhappy there than they had been during their lives That those who had been Thieves were continually pursu'd by Daemons that never left them at quiet That the Adulterous were scorched with the Flames of their unlawful Lusts and though they had always many handsome Women before their eyes yet they were the only Dead to whom it was forbidden to marry again in the other World because they had indulged and given themselves too much liberty in this That those who had killed their Fathers their Wives or Children were eternally slain by the same Persons and with the same kind of Death wherewith they had formerly destroy'd them That they who had murther'd their Kings met after their Death with a company of mad riotous fellows with whom they were fain to fight incessantly giving and receiving large wounds continually without having so much liberty as to lay down their Arms for one moment or stop the bloud gushing out from all parts of their Body And finally That those who had put any of their Priests to Death were perpetually praying to the Gods without any hope of ever being heard ANOTHER opinion they had concerning those that died without having committed any crime and who otherwise were neither good nor bad If they were young Children who had liv'd but a short time or died before they were weaned they believ'd that they met with an invisible Mansion upon Earth where they enjoy'd that life they had been depriv'd of and that there they attained to such an extreme old age that they could no more tell their Years And if they were old Men their opinion was that they began to grow young as soon as they were arrived
devoured the Bodies of their own Country-men as well as those of Foreigners when they were Dead So that what those fore-cited Historians do relate only of the Inhabitants of Pontus of the Massagetes Hyrcanians Derbices and several other Asiaticks we find confirmed in Europe to demonstrate that however barbarous this Custom seems to be yet it cannot well be doubted but that such there have been Nay their cruelty went further in respect of old people for as soon as they were come to seventy years of Age without staying for Death's call they rid them of the miseries of old Age by knocking them in the head or cutting their throats and then made a Feast of them and what was yet more horrid was that the Children only were thought fit to discharge this bloudy office being oblig'd by the Laws of the Land to take a Knife and murther their Parents themselves Neither were they wanting to defend and maintain this their extream inhumanity with many specious reasons and pretences For example they to justifie their impious murther alledged that Man's life after seventy years of Age being nothing else but a composition of pain and trouble they were in duty bound to free those from it who had brought them into the World that they might thereby prevent their miserable languishing and added that after their Death they could give them no higher expression of gratitude and duty than by feeding upon them because by that means their Parents became one and the same substance with them as they themselves were before they were born THE Parthians and Medes as likewise the Iberians and Inhabitants of the City Taxyla in the East Indies had such an horror and averseness for the corruption of the Dead and their being eaten by Worms that they exposed them in the open Fields to the end they might be there speedily devour'd by the wild Beasts accounting nothing more unworthy and unbeseeming the excellence of man than to rot and putrifie in the Earth and become the prey of such pitiful and loathsome Insects after his Death who while alive could not suffer so much as one of them about him Besides they believ'd that if he were devour'd by Beasts he would not be totally extinct and that being no more able to live in an humane Body he would at least enjoy a life in the bodies of those Animals that had fed upon him FOR this very purpose also the Bactrians fed Dogs which they call'd Canes Sepulchrales or Grave dogs and took a very particular care of them that after their Death their Souls might not want a healthful strong and lusty Body to reside in Oh unheard-of folly and madness thus to cherish those Creatures that were one day to tear and rend them with their teeth and what was more to make much of them only upon that account We naturally abhor an Hangman because his sole employment is to butcher Men how then may we think can those people look kindly on Creatures that are to be their own Executioners Or how can they with premeditated deliberation keep and feed them on purpose for this inhumane and barbarous piece of service Nevertheless most certain it is that they regarded this as a great point of their felicity For Cicero tells us that they made it no less their glory to feed those Dogs very high in order to make them grow fat and lusty than the Romans did to build sumptuous Tombs And S. Hierom adds that so great a veneration they had for this kind of Burial that Nicanor who by Alexander the Great was made Governour over them going about to suppress and abolish this inhumane custom of thers had like not only to have caused a revolt of the whole Province but also to have been by them massacred as an impious and sacrilegious person TO which we may add the Custom of the Barceans which seems no less extravagant who were of opinion that the most honourable Burial was to be devour'd by Vultures And that not only because those Birds by their long lives did represent Eternity but chiefly because they were consecrated to Mars and that Nature appears to have appointed them for that very use they being continually seen hovering about dead Bodies So that all persons of Worth and Quality that either died amongst them or fell in War fighting couragiously for their Country were immediately exposed in such places where Vultures might readily come at and make a prey of them As for the common people together with those that died on their Bed of a Natural death they were in a manner out of contempt flung into a Grave as not being esteemed worthy to have a Burial in the bellies of these sacred Birds THE Hyrcanians which I have above mentioned made some distinction between Men and Women for they did eat the former whereas they buried the latter as thinking them unworthy to have their bellies for their Graves Though methinks these above all deserved that honour supposing this barbarity might be so called since they had but done the like for them as having carried them nine months in their wombs CHAP. XI Fiery Sepulchres THE Grecians and Romans were not the only Nations that used to Burn their Dead the Germans and Gauls were also wont to do the like But we intend not to speak here of any except of those people which we account Barbarians because their Custom herein is much more cruel than that of the fore-mentioned The Reader then may please to know that some of them Burnt themselves casting themselves alive into the Fire others caus'd themselves to be stab'd before upon the Wood-pile and others were reduc'd to Ashes after their dead Bodies had lain a good while corrupting in the Fields amidst a huge heap of other stinking and rotten Carcasses THEY who were wont to Burn themselves were a certain Sect amongst the Indians who therein imitated their Doctors called Brachmans who by an extraordinary courage and fortitude or to speak more properly by a kind of madness and frenzy sought in the flames that Life of light which they preached to the people who seeing them thus desirous of Death and with so great joy thrust themselves into the Fire were soon won to this strange Doctrine and Opinion That there was no greater happiness attainable than that to which men were ushered-in through the flames THEY also believed that their participation of that felicity was different according to the more or less healthful condition they were in when they thus sacrificed themselves that is to say That they were the most happy and eternally enjoy'd a most pure light without the least mixture of darkness who burn'd themselves in their youth and the full vigour of their age whereas they that put it off till a further date did proportionably as they grew old and their strength diminish'd lose some degrees of those enjoyments that old people did only partake of a
above eleven months provided their Children repeat this Prayer for them every day which Prayer they do not continue to rehearse beyond the time fore-mentioned because every one of them has a good opinion of his Parents Virtue there being no Child that thinketh his Father to have been a wicked and ungodly man THIS Prayer is grounded upon a fabulous story of Rabbi Akiba who says that being one day a walking in a remote and solitary place he met with a man who was loaden with so great a burthen of Wood that no labouring Beast could ever have carried more and that upon his demanding whether he was a living Man or a Ghost he answered him that he was the Spirit of one Dead and was forced every day to cut down such a load of Wood to feed the Fire wherewith he was tormented in Purgatory Whereupon he further asked him his Name and that of his Family which as soon as he had learnt he repaired to the deceased's Children and taught them this Prayer withal assuring them that their Father would in a little time be delivered from his sufferings in case they would rehearse it constantly every day which they having begun to do the Dead appeared to them the next night to return them thanks for the same and let them know that he was already entered into the pleasant Garden of the terrestrial Paradise And thereupon these good tidings together with a Form of this Prayer were sent to every Synagogue in the World insomuch as there is not one now but makes use of it When the Deceased has no Children the whole Synagogue assembled in a Body by rehearsing this Prayer do supply that want But if he has any he dies with abundance of joy and satisfaction because they suppose the said Prayer more efficacious in the mouths of their Children than in any others AND what makes them so superstitious and strict in the observing of so many petty Ceremonies is because their Rabbis tell them that the Soul not being able to enter into Paradise as soon as it is separated from the Body haunts sometimes its own house sometimes Coemeteries or Church-yards and sometimes the Synagogue it self to observe and take notice whether in all these places they punctually pay their duties to their deceased Friend or Relation not doubting but that if they should neglect any the least circumstance therein they would be severely punished for it For they do esteem them so essential and absolutely necessary for the Rest of the departed Soul that they are perswaded it would never be by the Angels carried up into the Bed of God there to repose to all Eternity if but one single punctilio should be omitted in this service but that on the contrary it would be fain to wander up and down in a Region where it must meet with troops of Devils that would most cruelly afflict and torment it THEY also believe that when the Soul is upon the point either of entring Paradise or going down into Hell seeing it self obliged for ever to part and shake hands with its dear companion the Body re-enters it again for the last time and makes it to stand up on his feet Whereupon the Angel of Death with a chain in his hands whereof one half is Iron and the other Fire gives him three several strokes With the first of which he puts all his bones out of joynt making them fall confusedly to the ground with the second he breaks and shatters them and with the last he turns them all to dust After which the good Angels draw near who having taken up all these broken pieces lay them anew in the Grave LASTLY they are perswaded that those who are not Interred in some place or other of the Holy Land shall never rise again and that all the favour God will be able to do them shall amount to no more than this That he will open some small chinks through which they may though imperfectly behold the abode of the Blessed except they have by great merits as continual Alms and other good works rendred themselves worthy of it And concerning these they say that God who is most just and never leaves goodness and virtue unrewarded shall provide for them hollow places in the Earth through which their Bodies shall rowl continually until they come to the Mount of Olives which at the time of the Resurrection shall be cleft and divided into two parts in order to its giving them a free passage and that being arrived in this blessed Land they shall rise again as well as others who were buried there for they fancy that the meer touching of it is sufficient to capacitate them for that Bliss and Felicity Upon which account it is that when they dye abroad they give their Relations a strict charge to translate their Bones into Chanaan as soon as ever they shall be able to do it NOR are their other Opinions concerning the Resurrection of the Dead less absurd and ridiculous than these their Ceremonies They hold it as an Article of their Faith that there are four things which God grants to none but Israelites viz. Prophecy the Law the Land of Promise and the Resurrection all others whether Heathens or Christians being depriv'd of these advantages To which they add that there will be three sorts of People which shall rise again at the last day The first shall be of those that are absolutely good The second of them who are stark nought and the third of such as are both good and bad That the good shall be inroll'd among the number of the Blessed ones the wicked reduced to nothing and those that are partly good and partly bad after having remained for the space of a whole Year in the fire where their Bodies shall be consumed and their Souls purified they shall at the last be received into Heaven NEVERTHELESS I find that their opinion is not general who think the wicked shall be annihilated for there are some of them that believe the Pains and Torments of the Damned will be Eternal and that they shall never enjoy any the least rest but on Saturdays when as they say those miserable Souls have leave to go out of the Flames and refresh themselves Whence it is that they take so much care of having Water ready in all their Vessels on that day to the end the Damned may not be at the trouble of looking out for some when they come to cool their burning and scorching heat BUT I must not here omit speaking of the virtue which they attribute to the word Amen or So be it there being some of them who make more account of it than of all their Prayers put together for how long and prolix soever they be they do not fancy them to have any efficacy at all except they conclude them with an Amen most fervently and devoutly pronounced Insomuch as all those who frequent their
of the Good Bad for as he will receive all them into the number of his Elect that have respected it so will he cast down to Hell all those Reprobates who Devil-like have despised and contemned the same IT might seem strange to some that after this pompous and triumphal Procession a quite contrary Quire should follow there being nothing more unsuitable to those Hymns and other marks of rejoycings afore-mentioned than the Tears and Lamentations of the Relations of the Deceased and that sadness which appears in the countenances of all their Friends But these Tears of the Laity have their reasons as well as the rejoycings of the Clergy The one express the sense of Nature and the other that of Faith Both which sentiments are so just that far from being opposite and destructive of each other they make up one of the most perfect Concerts and Symphonies in the World This S. Austin elegantly declares in his Comment on the Epistle of S. Paul to the Thessalonians where that Apostle adviseth us not to be sad and dejected at the Death of our Friends and Relations as they are who have no hope This Oracle says he does not condemn all sorrow for the Dead but only such as is immoderate and like that of the Heathens who expect no Eternal Felicity in the other World It is impossible adds the same Father that we should have no sense of and feel no grief at all for the Death of Persons who are so dear to us for though we are assured that we shall one day meet them in Heaven yet this parting besides that it is contrary to Nature depriving us of them for a time cannot but be very grievous Moreover we do not only in Death behold the destruction of the Body but the horrid and frightful image of Sin which is the cause of it so that far from being not to afflict our selves in this so sad a juncture we might says he be altogether comfortless if Faith did not awake our Hope and Hope calm and allay this natural and just sorrow So that we are grieved and cannot chuse but be so because of this separation But the bitterness of this affliction is sweetned and mitigated by the stedfast hope we have one day to see them again in Heaven who for a time are departed from amongst us Nature afflicts and Hope glads us our own weakness casts us down and Faith raiseth us Our miserable condition makes us mourn and the Divine Promise rejoyceth and comforts us I forgive Parents says S. Jerome for the Tears they shed at their Children's Death No I cannot pursues he blame your mourning when I consider you are the Father and Mother of them that are Dead But withal must blame you if you do not cease your Tears when I have put you in mind that you are Christians And S. Chrysostom on the same subject speaks to this purpose I do not absolutely forbid you to weep but to weep immoderately I am not cruel but rather sympathize with you as well knowing how much Nature suffers on these occasions This I see commonly happens even to the most Virtuous Persons and not to mention those two great Patriarchs Abraham and Joseph the one whereof wept over his Wife Sarah and the other over his Father Jacob JESVS CHRIST who ought to be our Pattern wept at the Grave of Lazarus which the Jews perceiving did attribute his Tears to the love he had for this holy Person You see therefore concludes S. Ambrose that Tears when moderate may be the marks as well of our Piety as of our Grief and that being made up of the weakness of our Nature and certainty of our Hope they may well become our Christian Funerals BESIDES I find that the Prayers the Friends of the Dead rehearse are very suitable to this Religious Solemnity Some Sing others Weep and these last Pray Now this variety which seems so disagreeing and inconsistent is nevertheless most pleasing to God and makes a most admirable Harmony wherein he very much delights because these differing Voices are not so contrary one to another but that they are all equally good and holy The Priests sing for joy in view of the great happiness and bliss of the Deceased the Relations weep to see themselves for a time deprived of him and because they cannot accompany him into Glory Lastly his Friends pray that nothing might stop him in his Journey and that without calling at Purgatory he might immediately enter upon those Enjoyments and Blessings which are prepared for him in the Mansions of Eternity TO the same Motive we must also attribute those Masses which are afterwards celebrated and Alms that are given These pious Works as well as Prayers are done for the Rest of the departed Souls Which Custom has always been observed by the Church as we may collect from all the fore quoted Fathers who speaking of the Funerals of the Christians mention also these charitable and holy aids But to avoid prolixity I here omit to set down their words at large NOW what remains is to shew that Christians ever had particular Places to Bury their Dead in and that those Places were consecrated and hallowed We read in the Pontifical that almost the same Ceremonies are us'd at the Consecration of Coemeteries as at that of Churches both which have the same Priviledges and the one may be polluted as many ways as the other St. Denys the Areopagite who lived in the time of the Apostles does in the seventh Chapter of his Hierarchy call Coemeteries Honourable and Sacred Places The same Appellation Tertullian gives them in the 51. Chapter of his Book of his Soul as well as Optatus Milevitanus in his sixth Book Saint Cyprian in his 68. Epistle St. Ambrose in the Second Book of Offices and Saint Austin in his 64. Epistle Moreover S. Jerome speaking of St. Ignatius makes mention of the Coemetery of the first Christians which was at Antioch without Daphnis-Gate And Saint Chrysostom in his Sermon concerning Faith and the Law assures us that in his time there was not one Christian City Town or Village in the World which had not a Church-yard belonging to it But besides this great Number of Authorities which cannot be opposed all of them proving the sacredness of these Places by the holy Name which is bestow'd upon them we shall be the more perswaded and convinc'd of this Truth if we do consider that the Mass and other Divine and Ecclesiastical Services are here celebrated as well as in Churches Neither do I speak only of those Places called Catacumbae where Martyrs were interred but generally of all our Church-yards Let us hear what St. Clement the Pope says in his Apostolical Constitutions Assemble your selves in the Coemeteries there read the Sacred Books and sing your Spiritual Hymns be present at the Mass that is celebrated there and after you have received the Body of our Saviour continue the Harmony of your Songs
found himself ready to miscarry in the River Xanthus A LIKE fear of Scipio's the greatest Captain the Romans ever had Silius mentions who tells us that he that had so many times without the least concern or motion seen Rivers of Bloud running down was most terribly affrighted at the passage of the River Trebia where he saw himself in danger of being drowned THE same account Statius gives us of Hippomedon who as he says could without any trouble have presented his Body to the dint of a thousand Swords and yet was not able to abide the thoughts of being cast away in the River Theumesia IN a word this was the Death which Ovid could not by any means be reconciled with and that upon this only score that it deprives a Man of Burial THEREFORE they who were in danger of miscarrying at Sea commonly tied a Piece of Gold or Silver about their Necks that therewith if peradventure the Waves should drive their Bodies to the shore they might pay for their Funeral Charges though they knew that this caution and care was not necessary since by the Laws the Inhabitants of the Place where they should be cast up were oblig'd to bury them Which Laws we will now endeavour to describe and set down in some order to the end we may there-from derive a greater authority to this Right of Burial whereof we are treating ALL the World knows in how great esteem the Laws of the Twelve Tables have ever been amongst the Romans their equity being so universally acknowledged that the sole mention of them was enough to incline the most obstinate and wilful minds imaginable to reason THESE were the Laws which Cicero that famous Orator and Oracle of the Roman Senate prefer'd before all the Writings of Philosophers and declar'd them to be more worth than whole Libraries whether one considered their weight and Authority or the great advantages they procur'd to the Publick Now these so good wholsome and just Constitutions do speak of nothing more than of the Duty the Living are bound to pay to the Dead and that with good reason for they being depriv'd of Life and consequently unable to defend themselves or complain of those that abuse them it is but just that the Laws should by all manner of ways favour and protect them And therefore they first of all define that an Heir who shall not have well acquitted himself in all the Funeral Honors he ought to pay to his Benefactor after his Death or omitted any essential thing relating thereto be put by and deprived of the Inheritance or Legacy which was left him Secondly that in case he has express'd the least contempt in performing of the same he shall be lyable to capital Punishment And in the third and last place that if he has been observ'd somewhat careless and negligent in discharging the said Duty he shall not enjoy the means bequeathed to him except he do every Year Sacrifice a Sow before he gather-in his Harvest to the end he may pacifie and appease the Ghost of the Departed SOLON who was the first of Greece that establish'd Laws and had so well regulated the Republick of Athens that Cicero was of opinion all other States were to conform themselves to it if they would be well governed because he had omitted nothing therein which was requisite to good Order Virtue Peace and Justice did amongst those Laws he had made to this purpose not forget to insist upon each particular and least Ceremony to be observ'd at Funerals which he afterwards put into the hands of the Priests that they might be the Depositors and Judges of them for time to come LYCVRGVS who is also accounted one of the most ancient Law-givers and who by his Justice made himself no less consider'd at Lacedaemon than the former at Athens did not only confirm in favour of the Dead all the Honors that were by Solon appointed and ordained should be performed to them but super-added this that thence-forward they should have their Sepulchres within the Walls of the City to the end that being thus exposed to the sight of all People they might be the more respected and imitated by them in the whole conduct of their Lives THAT Learned Lawyer Vlpian and Labeo who was before him do both of them assure us that the Laws of all Nations do above all things recommend Funeral Duties being very severe to those that neglect the performance of the same BY the Salick Laws it was Enacted that he who had been so inhumane and barbarous as to take a dead Body out of its Grave to the intent of depriving it of Burial should be banished as a Monster from the Society of all Men and that none should give him any retreat no not his own Wife and this upon most severe Penalties IN the Digest as well as in the Codex of Theodosius and Justinian we hear of nothing but shame Fines Banishments Amputations of Hands Capital Punishments and other such like decreed against them who had done any injury to the Dead according to the quality of their Crime We have also a Novel of Valentinian wholly in favour of Sepulchres And that Apostate Prince Julian who might seem to have renounced all manner of Religion by abandoning the Christian did nevertheless openly take the part of the Dead and order'd those to be most severely punished who had disturbed or offer'd any injury to them IN a word so great respect has ever been given to Sepulchres that the most Christian Princes have extended it even to those of the Heathens and strictly forbidden the violating of them For besides the Emperor Constans who of all Monarchs was the greatest abhorrer of Paganism we might quote here the Canons of the fourth Council of Toledo together with those of that of Meaux or Paris all which declare the violating of Graves to be a Capital Crime according to both Divine and humane Laws IN ancient time it was not lawful to make water or so much as spit in Places set apart for Burying the Dead for which purpose they were us'd to have there the representations of Griffins Lions or Dogs they being the most watchful of all Creatures as so many Spies to have an eye that no undecent action might be done there YEA it was this great respect which the Ancients had for the Dead that first gave birth to their Idolatry and made them change Sepulchres into Temples Here they reared their Altars offer'd Sacrifices and at last worshipped them as Gods who were buried as Men. Virgil tells us that the Marble-Tomb which Queen Dido had caus'd to be erected in her Palace in honour of her first Husband was even during her life-time looked upon as a Temple so that by the Divine Honours which were there paid to his Ashes she first gave an instance of this Superstition Upon this account it is that all our Divines have upbraided the
Pagans with that gross blindness into which they wilfully plung'd themselves by placing them amongst the number of the Gods whom they had by experience known to be but Men having seen them as well as others obnoxious to Death which is the greatest defect of humane Nature and therefore most contrary to Divinity AND me-thinks the Poet Prudentius treats them very favourably when laughing at the plurality and vanity of their Gods he says that there were as many Temples at Rome as Sepulchres built in honour of their Heroes For it is certain that this Superstition was universal amongst them they being of opinion that Death indifferently consecrated all manner of Persons and was thought sufficient to entitle them to Divine Worship And therefore on this occasion the highest Personages forgot their State and Grandeur and humbled themselves to the meanest Service at the Funeral of those whom they had in their life time look'd upon with contempt insomuch as even Princes honoured their Subjects as soon as they were by Death hallowed and deified and Generals of Armies the meanest of their Souldiers TRAJAN himself who hath always past for one of the greatest and wisest Emperours that Rome ever had was not altogether free from this error For we read in the Historian Dion that he built Altars to the Souldiers who had served him in that perillous and desperate War which he wag'd against Decebalus King of the Dacians and were kill'd in the Field AND what surprises me more is that wise and learned Men have not been able to keep themselves from being taken with this Superstition and not only with the multitude followed but by their Writings authorized the same Labeo tells us with his usual gravity as if he were pronouncing the Decrees and Acts of the Senate That all Souls universally are deified from the moment they are separated from their Bodies AND the Platonists make no other difference between these so common Divinities than that the one do still continue to be wicked after their death as they were in their life-time and that the others on the contrary are always good asserting that those who have led an ungodly life are no sooner dead but they are turn'd to Hob-goblins Spectres and Ghosts that haunt Houses and Church-Yards as they who have liv'd well do become Tutelar and Family-Gods IN short this Opinion was of old so universally receiv'd that there was not a Family but had their own Gods for every one honoured in particular all those of his own Blood that were dead LACTANTIVS who lived in those days informs us that they made Images of them which they carefully kept in their Houses and the better to render them venerable they clothed them in the same Habits wherewith the other Gods whom they adored in their Temples were adorned dressing all the Statues of their deceased Women in the Habiliments of Goddesses and those of Men after the manner of the Gods BUT lest we should think that Lactantius being a Christian does herein impose upon us to make us the more decry and abhor their Religion we may with little pains find the like instances in their own Authors The Poet Statius in the description he makes of the Funeral Honours which Abscancius paid to his Wife Priscilla does not omit to mention that he extended them to an Apotheosis or Consecration and denied her nothing of that veneration which was given to the greatest Goddesses Apulcius says no less of Charite her Mourning for the death of her Husband Leopolemus for having apparelled him like Bacchus she made no difficulty to pay him the same honors that went due to that God AND indeed from what they tell us themselves I find that they expressed no less reverence to them whom they had soon die than to those they believed Immortals and were worshipped publickly For besides Sacrifices they instituted Games and Solemn Festivals in honor of them yea which is more and the greatest mark of Worship that can be express'd they swore by their Ashes CICERO in his second Book of Laws says that these Games Solemnities and Sacrifices were authorized by a practice of time out of mind it having never been questioned but that all Persons as soon as they were departed this Life were admitted into the Rank and Number of the Gods To which he adds that consonant to this pious Custom he behaved himself at the Death of his Daughter AS for Oaths which are Sacred Protestations and affirmations of any thing wherein the Immortal Gods are call'd to Witness we find nothing more frequent among Profane Authors than their Swearing by the Ashes of their Parents and other near Relations This we read in Ovid that Briseis confirming something by Oath to Achilles takes the Souls of her three deceased Brothers whom she consider'd as so many Gods to witness of the truth of what she averr'd to him Hermione in the same Poet swears to Orestes by the Bones of her Father Propertius does the like to Cynthia by those of his Parents Claudian assures us that there is nothing so decent and becoming a Man nor so commendable as to swear by the Ashes of his Parents And Seneca the Rhetorician introducing a young Man whom his Unkle had disinherited because he took care to supply his Father's wants makes him deliver himself in these words How could I see him starve for hunger by whose Ashes I must swear one day FINIS Mens cujusque is est Quisque * Eccl. 7. 4. * Deuter. 32. 29. ‖ Eccl. 9. 10 * Diod. lib. 2. Hist Officers employ'd by the Egyptians at their Funerals * Mela l. 1. ch 9. The manner of their Burying and Embalming Their common Sepulchres * Lucian de luctu Their mourning and lamentations for the common sort ‖ Sixt. Empyric l. 3. For their Kings Publick Examination of the Lives of their Princes after their Death Royal Sepulchres * Bellon Sing Observat l. 2. Their Figure and vast Dimensions The Sepulchre of a young Princess * Herodot l. 2. hist Three sorts of Burials Burying and burning of the Dead in use among the Grecians * Thucyd. l. 1. Divers Examples of Burials Funeral Elogies and common Place of Souldiers Burial * Demosth cont Eubulid ‖ Plut. in Solon Senec in Oedip. Act. 1. Place of Burial for such who died on their beds Priviledge of Heroes Laws that excluded Spend-thrifts from the Burying-place of their Fathers * Gruther Kirckman Guichard Laws that directed the manner of Burials and laying of the Corps Their Mourning the manner of burying their Dead and attending at Funerals very various according to the different Countries of Greece * Thucyd. l. 1. The Duty of Burying inviolable amongst them Example of Wood-piles or burning of the Dead * Homer Iliad Burying and Burning of the Dead us'd amongst the Romans * Herodot Dion Herod ‖ Liv. l. 12. * Varro L. 4. de Lin. Lat. Ceremonies observed at their Departure
case it happen that for a long time they receive no news from their Relations abroad insomuch as they have reason to suspect their death if after they have advised with Soothsayers and made all possible enquiries they can't procure their Bodies being Dead then they make an Image of Plaster and pay to it the same Honours which they would have paid to the Corps it self AS soon as these Feasts are over the Bonzes which are their Priests are call'd in to rehearse the usual Prayers which they do in so sad and mournful a tune and withal so extreamly harsh and frightful that one would rather think it to be the howling of Devils than the singing of Priests This done they appoint the day and hour of the Burial after which every body being withdrawn they leave the Corps in the hands of such who are to take care of preparing it in order to its Interment THESE do wash it with sweet waters dress it in his finest Cloaths and put it up in a Coffin with several precious things which are given to the Deceased by his Relations And to the end that neither Devils nor Men should dare meddle with them they also put into the Coffin some horrid and frightful shapes which they say are very sure Guardians and scarecrows against all manner of Robbers How great Riches are consum'd and spent in these Funerals is almost incredible for besides that these Coffins are often of Gold or Silver many Jewels and precious Stones of great value are together enclosed with them NOR do they ever bury their Dead in those Years where the last number is the same with that of the Year of their birth For example if the Party were born in one thousand six hundred and five or fifteen if you will and he happen to dye in the Year one thousand six hundred thirty five forty five or in any of a like denomination they keep the Corps all that Year over being in continual expectation that as his Soul came first into his Body in a Year of that number so may it the same Year return and be re-united again with it And this foolish belief doth so far prevail with them that when ever it happens so they dare not inter the Body but the year after WITH a like ridiculous and vain Opinion do they entertain their fancies concerning the return of the Dead into their Houses once a Year which they imagine comes to pass in the very last Night of the Year and to the end their deceas'd Friends and Relations may without any more ado enter-in as soon as they come they leave their Doors open all that Night In the mean time they make their Beds ready for them and set a Bason full of Water in the Chamber to wash their feet and whatsoever else they may have occasion for Thus with great stilness and silence they expect their coming till Midnight when supposing them arrived they complement them by telling them how glad they are of their Company and thereupon light several Wax-Tapers that are placed on an Altar which they have for that use on which they burn a composition of sweet-scented Drugs with a thousand like Perfumes then they with great reverence bow themselves to them praying them to remember their Children Nephews or other Relations that Year that by their means they may obtain of the Gods health strength and a long and prosperous Life with plenty of worldly Goods Now though this may seem a ridiculous custom yet the neglecting or omitting of the same is reck'ned amongst them a most high and unpardonable crime and of which if any should be guilty they would not fail to lye under a continual apprehension that the Dead would some time or other avenge that impiety and severely punish them for the same BUT to return from this digression we 'l now speak of the end and upshot of their Funeral Ceremonies The day on which the Corps is to be Buried they early in the Morning give publick notice of the Hour when it is to be carried to its Grave to have the greater concourse of People to attend it In the front of all this Procession march Colours and Standards which are followed by Men playing on Instruments some on Drums others on Ho-boys others on Bag-pipes and others on Trumpets after these come up a Company of Dancers who are drest in mighty strange and antick habits like Stage-players leaping and dancing all the way in a very ridiculous manner After this third Company comes another that is no less singular in its kind They are a number of Men armed with several sorts of Weapons some with Symetars others with large Shields and Bucklers and others with Clubs whose massy end is stuck full of Iron-spikes these are seconded by others that carry Fire-arms which they continually discharge and the Priests who come next after them do cry and bawl as loud as ever they can which noise though very great is still encreas'd by the sad and sonorous lamentations both of the Relations and People attending insomuch that if there ever was a mad concert this may well be call'd so besides that this antick mixture of Players Dancers Souldiers Musicians and Mourners makes it the most ridiculous show in the World AS to the Bodies of the Rich they are most commonly carried into the Country every one of them making choice of a place of Burial for himself in his own ground by reason they hope to enjoy their Estates in another life and accordingly take possession of the same by their being Buried there Upon which account it is that when a Grave is once made in any Land or Possession the Kindred of the Dead are from that time forward devested of the liberty to dispose of it to others And as during their Lives they spend much time and money towards the preparing of those Graves which after their Death are yet further inrich'd and embellish'd by their Friends and Relations so are they the most magnificent and stately structures that can ever be seen BESIDES all this the Relations of the Dead do put themselves to other great expences to supply them with goods in the other world In the midst of some publick place they erect vast Buildings whose Fabrick is both curious and costly and having written the Name of the Deceased upon them they burn them to ashes being of that belief that the same pass to the other world and that their departed Friends take possession of them as if they were made over to 'em by a Letter of Attorney IT remains yet that we speak of two sorts of Burials which are in use among them viz. of the meaner sort and of their Kings The former of which are interred in publick Burying-places without much ceremony or expence their belief being that they must be poor in the other World as they have been in this AS for their Kings though they