Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	aaron_n	day_n	rod_n	16	3	9.4131	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29860	Hydriotaphia, urn-burial, or, A discours of the sepulchral urns lately found in Norfolk together with the Garden of Cyrus, or, The quincuncial lozenge, or network of plantations of the ancients, artificially, naturally, mystically considered : with sundry observations / by Thomas Browne.	Browne, Thomas, Sir, 1605-1682.	1669 (1669)	Wing B5155; ESTC R35415	73,609	80

fresh that they could feel no sindge from Fire These upon view were judged to be Wood but sinking in water and tried by the fire we found them to be Bone or Ivory In their hardness and yellow colour they most resembled Box which in old expressions found the Epithete of Eternal and perhaps in such Conservatories might have passed uncorrupted That Bay-leaves were found green in the Tomb of S. Humbert after an hundred and fifty years was looked upon as miraculous Remarkable it was unto old Spectators that the Cypress of the Temple of Diana lasted so many hundred years The Wood of the Ark and olive-Olive-rod of Aaron were older at the Captivity But the Cypress of the Ark of Noah was the greatest vegetable Antiquity if Josephus were not deceived by some Fragments of it in his days To omit the Moor-logs and Firre-trees found under ground in many parts of England the undated ruines of Winds Flouds or Earthquakes and which in Flanders still shew from what Quarter they fell as generally lying in the North-East position But though we found not these pieces to be Wood according to first apprehension yet we missed not altogether of some woody substance for the Bones were not so clearly pick'd but some Coals were found amongst them A way to make Wood perpetual and a fit associate for Metall whereon was laid the foundation of the great Ephesian Temple and which were made the lasting Tests of old Boundaries and Land-marks Whilest we look on these we admire not observations of Coals found fresh after four hundred years In a long-deserted habitation even Egg-shels have been found fresh not tending to corruption In the Monument of King Childerick the iron Reliques were found all rusty and crumbling into pieces But our little Iron-pins which fastned the ivory works held well together and lost not their Magneticall quality though wanting a tenacious moisture for the firmer union of parts although it be hardly drawn into Fusion yet that metall soon submitteth unto rust and dissolution In the Brazen pieces we admired not the duration but the freedom from rust and ill savour upon the hardest attrition but now exposed unto the piercing Atoms of Air in the space of a few months they begin to spot and betray their green Entrals We conceive not these Urns to have descended thus naked as they appear or to have entred their Graves without the old habit of Flowers The Urn of Philopoemen was so laden with Flowers and Ribbands that it afforded no sight of it self The rigid Lycurgus allowed Olive and Myrtle The Athenians might fairly except against the practice of Democritus to be buried up in Honey as fearing to imbezzle a great Commodity of their Country and the best of that kinde in Europe But Plato seemed too frugally politick who allowed no larger Monument then would contain four Heroick verses and designed the most barren ground for Sepulture Though we cannot commend the goodness of that Sepulchral ground which was set at no higher rate then the mean Salary of Judas Though the Earth had confounded the Ashes of these Ossuaries yet the Bones were so smartly burnt that some thin Plates of Brass were found half melted among them whereby we apprehended they were not of the meanest Carkasses perfunctorily fired as sometimes in military and commonly in Pestilence-Burnings or after the manner of abject Corps huddled forth and carelesly burnt without the Esquiline Port at Rome which was an Affront continued upon Tiberius while they but half burnt his Body and in the Amphitheater according to the custome in notable Malefactors whereas Nero seemed not so much to fear his Death as that his Head should be cut off and his Body not burnt entire Some finding many fragments of Sculls in these Urns suspected a mixture of Bones In none we searched was there cause of such conjecture though sometimes they declined not that practice The Ashes of Domitian were mingled with those of Julia of Achilles with those of Patroclus All Urns contained not single Ashes without confused Burnings they affectionately compounded their Bones passionately endeavouring to continue their living Unions And when distance of death denied such Conjunctions unsatisfied affections conceived some satisfaction to be neighbours in the Grave to lie Urn by Urn and touch but in their names And many were so curious to continue their living Relations that they contrived large and Family-Urns wherein the Ashes of their nearest Friends and Kindred might successively be received at least some parcels thereof while their collateral memorials lay in minor Vessels about them Antiquity held too light thoughts from Objects of Mortality while some drew provocatives of Mirth from Anatomies and Jugglers shewed tricks with Skeletons when Fiddlers made not so pleasant mirth as Fencers and men could sit with quiet stomachs while Hanging was plaid before them Old considerations made few Memento's by Sculls and Bones upon their Monuments In the Aegyptian Obelisks and Hieroglyphical Figures it is not easie to meet with Bones The Sepulchral Lamps speak nothing less then Sepulture and in their literal draughts prove often obscene and antick pieces Where we finde D. M. it is obvious to meet with sacrificing Patera's and Vessels of Libation upon old Sepulchral Monuments In the Jewish Hypogaeum and subterranean Cell at Rome was little observable beside the variety of Lamps and frequent draughts of the holy Candlestick In authentick draughts of Antony and Jerome we meet with Thigh-bones and Death's-heads but the coemeterial Cells of ancient Christians and Martyrs were filled with draughts of Scripture-Stories not declining the Flourishes of Cypress Palms and Olive and the mystical Figures of Peacocks Doves and Cocks but iterately affecting the Pourtraicts of Enoch Lazarus Jonas and the Vision of Ezekiel as hopefull draughts and hinting imagery of the Resurrection which is the life of the Grave and sweetens our habitations in the Land of Moles and Pismires Gentile Inscriptions precisely delivered the extent of mens Lives seldome the manner of their Deaths which History it self so often leaves obscure in the Records of memorable persons There is scarce any Philosopher but dies twice or thrice in Laertius nor almost any Life without two or three Deaths in Plutarch which makes the tragical Ends of noble Persons more favourably resented by compassionate Readers who finde some relief in the Election of such differences The certainty of Death is attended with uncertainties in Time Manner Places The variety of Monuments hath often obscured true Graves and Cenotaphs confounded Sepulchres For beside their real Tombs many have found honorary and empty Sepulchres The variety of Homer's Monuments made him of various Countries Euripides had his Tomb in Africa but his Sepulture in Macedonia And Severus found his real Sepulchre in Rome but his empty Grave in Gallia He that lay in a golden Urn eminently above the Earth was not like to finde the quiet