Hereby it plainly appears that we really possess nothing of our own, and what we seem to enjoy, is but only lent us for a season, and must be restor’d again when ever we die, which is agreeable to that Expression of Job, in the latter part of the above-mentioned Verse and Chapter. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the Lord. Also Holy David, Psalm 146. 4. (speaking of Man’s Frailty and Mortality) says, His Breath goes forth, he returns to his Earth. Here he emphatically calls it his Earth, both because he was made of it, Gen. 2. 27. and must return to it again, Gen. 3. 19. and by reason he has a Right to a Burial-Place in it.

The same is likewise Taught us by Cicero, where he says, Reddenda Terra Terræ: That the Earth (meaning Man’s Body) must be restor’d to its Earth; which also gave occasion to the antient Philosophers to contemplate the Beginning and End, or the Life and Death of Man, that thereby they might be the better able to Teach us what we really are in Nature, and how little we have to Boast of: The very Thought of which put an old Poet into a Passion and Admiration, expressing himself thus in gingling Monkish Verses:

Methinks the very Consideration of this should cause us to lay aside all Pride and Vanity, and serve for a perpetual Memorial of Humility and Obedience to our Creator, who as he was pleas’d to endue us with Rational Souls, and to give us Dominion over all Things here below, yet, that we might not be thereby puffed up and tempted to forget him, he wisely formed us of the Dust, and, in his good Time, will reduce us to Dust again. Thence Divine Plato assures us, that the End and Scope of his Philosophy was only The Consideration of Death.

In Obedience therefore to the Laws both of GOD and Nature, Sepulture undoubtedly was at first Instituted, and if either Antiquity or universal Custom can prove a convincing Argument, you may account it as antient as the World it self, and us’d by all Nations tho’ perhaps in different manners; for you must allow, so soon as Death came in by Man’s Transgression, it necessarily follow’d that some care must have been taken to Bury his Carcass. The first Instance of this that we read of, in the Sacred History of the old Testament, is how Abraham, the Father of the Faithful, Buried his Wife Sarah in the Cave of the Field Machpelah, which he had bought of the Sons of Heth for a Burying-Place for his Family, Gen. 23. 19, 20. There also St. Jerome asserts Adam the first Man was Buried; and Nicolaus Lyranus and Alphonsus Tostatus are of Opinion the Four Patriarchs were Buried there likewise with their Wives, Eve, Sarah, Rebecca and Lea, all which you may find explain’d more at large in Quenstedt, p. 2, 3, 4.

This is to be look’d upon as the second Cause or End of Burial, to wit, that it being not only disagreeable to the dignity of our Nature, but also occasioning great sadness of Mind, for the Living to see what dismal Accidents and Calamities befall the Dead, that we should free our selves from the Apprehensions and black Idea’s such Objects are naturally apt to inspire, by removing them out of our Sight and Mind, by a timely Sepulture: For as Demosthenes said in a Funeral Oration, Leniatur ita Luctus Eorum, qui Suis sunt Orbati; By this means the Grief of those, who are depriv’d of their Friends, is alleviated. |Thought more Beneficial to the Living than the Dead.| So that these two Reasons seeming to conduce more to the Benefit of the Living than the Dead, it has given occasion to some to believe, that Burial was from thence invented, and of this Opinion was Grotius, who thus writes: Hinc est, quod Officium Sepeliendi, non tam Homini, id est, Personæ, quam Humanitati, id est, Naturæ Humanæ, præstari dicitur; For this Reason it is that the Office of Burial is said not to be paid so much to the Man, viz. To the particular Person, as to Humanity it self, that is, to Human Nature in general. And St. Austin, Lib. 1. De Civit. DEI, cap. 12. and Lib. De Cura pro Mortuis, cap. 2. affirms, Curationem Funeris, Conditionem Sepulturæ, Pompas Exequiarum, magis esse Vivorum Solatia, quam Mortuorum Subsidia; that The regulating and management of the Funeral, the manner of Burial, the Magnificence and Pomp of the Exequies, were devised rather as a Consolation to the Living than any Relief to the Dead. But Seneca, Lib. 1. De Remed. hath more plainly confirm’d both the foregoing Reasons, saying, Non Defunctorum Causa, sed Vivorum inventa est Sepultura, ut Corpora & Visu & Odore fœda submoverentur; Burial was found out not so much for the sake of the Dead as the Living, that by means thereof Bodies noisom both to Sight and Smell might be remov’d: Therefore Andrew Rivet, in his 19th Exercise, on the 23 Chap. of Genesis, commends Sepulture as a laudable Custom, pertaining to common Policy and Honesty. Human Nature would be asham’d to see Man, the Master-Piece of the Creation, left unregarded or lye unburied and naked, expos’d to the Insults of all Creatures, and become a Herritage to the most vile Worms and Serpents, or lye Rotting like Dung upon the face of the Earth; so that if Pity and Compassion will not move our obdurate Hearts to Bury him, the very Stench and Corruption of the Dead will compel us to it. Hence Chytræus:

By these two fore-going Causes of Burial appears yet a farther Benefit to Mankind, that they may live without that continual Terror of Death, |Frees from the Terror of Death.| which is occasion’d by seeing such miserable Emblems of Mortality. If you do but consider, when Men at first liv’d dispers’d, the very Abhorrence and Detestation of meeting Dead Bodies, made them to remove such unpleasant Objects out of their sight: Afterwards, when they assembl’d together and built Cities to dwell in, they used Burial for this Reason says Lilius Gyraldus, Lib. De var. Sepult. Ritu. pag. 4. That the Living might not be infected by the most noisom stench of the Dead. The before-going Arguments for Interment have been deduc’d from Natural and Political Reasons, but the latter likewise relating to Physic, and particularly conducing to the Health and long Life of Man (since The Art of Embalming was not known in those Days) we will a little more accurately enquire into the pernicious Effects of Putrefaction, and the fatal Consequences that from thence ensue; for this being the most potent Enemy to Life, |From Putrefaction the Enemy of Life.| Nature is very careful to expel it so soon as ever she perceives, by its odious Scents, its invisible Approaches: Nor can she endure the lesser ill Scents of Sweat or Urine, or those Excrements of the Belly, which are necessarily produc’d from the Aliments of the Body, but the Body it self as well as Spirits reject them; for this is to be observ’d, that the Excrements and Putrefactions of all Creatures smell worst and are most offensive to their own Species, which we may see by Cats, which voiding a more than ordinary fetid Dung, always take care to bury it. And such cleanliness of Living renders all Creatures the more Healthful, as we daily find by Birds, Pigeons, Horses, Dogs, &c. which thrive best when their Houses, Stables and Kennels are kept sweetest. There is not only an unhealthy, but oftentimes a secret poysoning Quality in the fetid Odours of a putrid Air, which are made so malignant by Bodies corrupt and exposed therein; and thus, in several Countries, |From the Plague.| great Plagues have been occasion’d only by the Putrefaction of prodigious swarms of dead Grasshoppers and Locusts cast up on heaps. Thus, the Scripture testifies, the Land of Egypt was corrupted with Lice, Flies, Frogs and Locusts as a Punishment to Pharaoh: The Fish of the Rivers died, and the Waters stank; also there was a Murrain among the Beasts, and a Plague of Boils and Blains among the Inhabitants, Exod. chap. 7, 8, 9, 10.

The infectious Atoms of a putrid Air are so very subtile and invisible, that they meet with an easie reception into the Brain and Lungs, as often as we breath, and thereby immediately occasion in the Brain either an Apoplexy or Delirium, a Syncope to the Spirits, a general Convulsion of the Nerves, or else more slowly corrupt the Blood, by mixing with it in its passage thro’ the Lungs, where they either produce Imposthumes, Ulcers, Consumptions or Hectic-Fevers which prey upon the Spirits and Vitals, or bring Gangrenes to the extreamest Parts, or the Small-Pox, Purple Fevers, and other malignant Distempers to the whole Body; nay, they too frequently prove the very principal Ingredient of the Plague it self, that inexorable Spirit which so swiftly dispatches many thousands of Souls to the other World.

Thus Poison’d Air, or The Art of Empoisoning by Odours, is more dangerous than Poison’d Water, forasmuch as it is impossible Man should live without Breathing, or subsist in an infectious Air, without a proper Antidote. This Art has been effectually practis’d by the Indians in their Trafficks, and the Turks in their Wars, and was particularly us’d by Emanuel Comnenus towards the Christians, when they pass’d thro’ his Country, in their way to the Holy-Land. This the Lord Bacon relates in the 10th Century of his Natural History, p. 201. where he is of Opinion, That foul Smells, rais’d by Art for Poisoning the Air, consist chiefly of Man’s Flesh or Sweat putrefied, since those Stinks, which the Nostrils immediately abhor and expel, are not the most pernicious, but such as have some similitude with Man’s Body, which thereby the easier insinuate themselves and betray the Spirits. Thus in Agues, Spirits coming from Putrefaction of Humours bred within the Body, extinguish and suffocate the Natural Heat, p. 74. The same effect is likewise to be observ’d in Pestilences, in that the malignity of the infecting Vapour, daunts the principal Spirits, and makes them to fly and leave their Regiment, whereby the Humours, Flesh and Secundary Spirits dissolve and break as it were in an Anarchy, Exper. 333. p. 74.

Also because the Canibals, in the West-Indies, eat Man’s Flesh, the same Author thought it not improbable, but that the Lues Venerea might owe its Origin to that foul and high Nourishment, since those People were found full of the Pox at their first Discovery, and at this Day the most Mortal Poisons, practis’d by them, |Consists partly of Man’s Flesh, &c.| have a mixture of Man’s Flesh, Fat or Blood. Likewise the Ointments that Witches have us’d, are reported to have been made of the Fat of Children dug out of their Graves; and diverse Sorceresses, as well among the Heathens as Christians, have fed upon Man’s Flesh, to help, as they thought, their wicked Imaginations with high and foul Vapours, Exper. 26. and 859.

The most pernicious Infection, next the Plague or Air Poison’d by Art, is the Smell of a Goal where Prisoners have been long, close and nastily kept, whereof, says the Lord Bacon, we have in our Time had Experience twice or thrice, when both the Judges that sat on the Trials, and numbers of those that assisted, sickn’d on the spot and Died, Exper. 914. The like would frequently befall those that visit Hospitals, and other such Places, where either the Leprosie, French Pox or Malignant Fevers rage, were not the Attendants dayly accustom’d to it, or did they not use proper Antidotes to keep them from it. If therefore the morbid State of the Living only be so pernicious to healthful Bodies, |Air most Infected by a putrid Carcass.| what Destruction must that Air produce, which is replete with the volatile Steams and Spirits, that issue from a dead and putrid Carcass?

For every Thing in Nature easiest Corrupts that of its own kind. The Reason of this is because it is Homogeneal, as is commonly seen in Church-Yards, where they bury much; for a Corps will consume in a far shorter Time there, than it would have done in another place where few have been buried.

It therefore necessarily follows, that if the Dead were not inhum’d, whole Cities would Corrupt and be fill’d with the Plague; and after great Battels, if the Dead should lie unbury’d, whole Countries would be destroy’d; |Sepulture defends from the Plague,| all which Mischiefs are prevented by a timely Sepulture: For the Earth by its weight and closeness not only suppresses and dissipates the Vapours that arise from a putrid Carcass, but also imbibes and sucks up the stinking Gore; and being a Medium between that and the Sun, prevents the Beams of that Planet from suddenly exhaling such fetid Odours. |Likewise preserves Bodies.| Nay the Lord Bacon farther assures us, That Burying in the Earth, which is cold and dry, serves for Preservation, Condensation and Induration of Bodies, as you may find in his 4th Century of his Natural History, Exper. 376, 377. But this needs no farther Confirmation, since Bodies are dug up in every Age perfect and uncorrupt, which perhaps had been buried above 40 or 50 Years, and some have been found petrified to a perfect Stone, of which we shall discourse more hereafter, therefore will at present proceed to acquaint you with other final Causes or Ends of Burial.

A Third Cause of Burial is, That Man’s Body may not be torn to pieces and devour’d by savage Beasts, and Birds of Prey, which would be a sight wholly unbecoming the Dignity of Human Nature, as Seneca observes Lib. 6. De Beneficiis: Inter maxima Rerum suarum, says he, nihil habet Natura, quo magis glorietur. Nature has nothing in the whole Creation of which she may boast more than of Man: So that it must needs be a grievous Trouble and Concern to her to see the Master-Piece and Perfection of all Creatures become thus a Prey to the vilest of Animals; and that he who whilst living had all of them under Subjection, so soon as ever his Spirit is separated from his Body, they should forget all Allegiance to their late Sovereign, and rebelliously Tear him to Pieces: Therefore we who are his Fellow-Creatures, and endu’d with Humanity, take care to bury him out of the way of such Harpies; and ought to perform all his Funeral Obsequies with the same Respect we were wont to show him whilst alive. Hence Hugo Grotius is of Opinion, That Burial was invented in respect to the Excellency of Man’s Body. |Taken from the Excellency of Man’s Body.| Cum Homo cæteris Animalibus præstet, indignum visum, si ejus Corpore alia Animantia pascerentur, quare inventam Sepulturam, ut id quantum posset, caveretur. Since Man excells all other Creatures, it was thought unworthy they should feed upon his Body; for which reason Sepulture was found out, that this Mischief might be prevented as far as possible. Likewise Lactantius, Lib. 6. Institut. cap. 12. says, Non patiemur Figuram & Figmentum DEI, Feris & Volucribus in Prædam jacere, sed reddamus id Terræ, unde ortum est. Let us not suffer the Image and Workmanship of GOD to lie expos’d as a Prey to the Beasts and Birds, but let us return it back to the Earth from whence it had its Origin.

So that we will account the Fourth Reason for Burial, to be the Excellency of Man’s Body, to which we ought to show the greater Honour and Respect, in that it is the Receptacle of the Immortal Soul. Hence Origen, Lib. 8. Contra Celsum says, Rationalem Animam honorare didicimus, & hujus Organa Sepulchro honorifice demandare. We have learn’d to Honour the Rational Soul, and respectfully to convey its Organs to the Grave. And thus St. Austin very elegantly expresses himself, Lib. 1. De Civit. DEI, cap. 13. Si Paterna Vestis & Annulus, vel si quid hujusmodi, tanto carius Posteris, quanto erga Parentes Affectus major, nullo modo ipsa spernenda sunt Corpora, quæ utiq; multo familiarius, atq; conjunctius, quam quælibet Indumenta gestamus. If we take so much the more care to preserve our Fathers Apparel, Ring, and other Remainders of the like nature, as we bore an Affection to them, ’tis plain their Bodies are by no means to be neglected, which we wear closer and nearer to us than any Cloaths whatever.

Nevertheless, we are not to think, tho’ Burial was ordain’d by GOD as a Work both pleasing and acceptable to him, and consequently approv’d and practis’d by all Men, that therefore the want of it, or any particular Ceremony thereof, can any ways be prejudicial to a Christian Soul, as St. Austin and Ludovicus Vives his Commentator alledges, Lib. 1. De Civit. DEI, cap. 11. And that Complaint which the Royal Prophet makes, Psalm 79. 3. That there was none to bury the dead Bodies of GOD’s Servants, was spoken rather to intimate their Villany that neglected it, than any Misery to them that underwent it. ’Tis true such Actions may appear heinous and tyranous in the Eye of Man, but precious in the Sight of the Lord is the Death of his Saints: Neither is our Faith in his assured Promise so frail, as to think ravenous Beasts or Birds of Prey can any ways make the Body want any part at the Resurrection; but, on the contrary, we are well satisfied that in a Moment there shall be given such a new Restitution, not only out of the Earth, but out of the most minute Particles of all the other Elements, wherein any Bodies can possibly be included, that not a Hair of our Heads shall be missing. We read how the Bodies of the Christians (after great Battels, and the Sacking and Subverting of Towns and Cities) stood in want of the Rights and Ceremonies of Burial, which neither is to be accounted any Omission in the living Christians, who could not perform them, nor any Hurt to the Dead, who could not feel them. We may, moreover, find in the History of Martyrs, and such like Persecutions, how barbarous and cruel Tyrants have raged over the Bodies of Christians, who, not content with tormenting them to Death several thousands of ways, still persever’d with inhumanity to insult over their mangled Corps, and at length to shew their utmost Contempt, bury’d them in the Bowels of rapacious Creatures, or what other ignominious ways their wickedness could invent. Nevertheless, we have all the reason to believe their Souls were receiv’d into Heaven, and that their Bodies will at the last Day be reunited intire to them again; after which, Death will have no more Power over their Bodies than their Souls, but as St. Paul says, 1 Cor. 15. 44. They will become Spiritual Bodies. |Nor any kind thereof hurtful.| So that in this respect it matters not after what manner the Body be destroy’d, dissolv’d or bury’d, as Tatian in his Book Contra Gentes says, Quamvis Caro tota Incendio absumatur tamen Materiam evaporatam Mundus excipit, quanquam aut in Fluviis, aut in Mari contabescam, aut Feriis dilanior, condor tamen in Penu locupletis Domini. Altho’ the Flesh be wholly consum’d by Fire, yet the World receives the evaporated Matter, nay, altho’ I am wash’d to nothing in Rivers or Seas, or am devour’d by wild Beasts, yet shall I be reposited in the Store-House of a most wealthy Lord. Likewise Minutius Fælix in Octavio has these Words: Corpus omne sive arescit in Pulverem, sive in Humorem solvitur, vel in Cinerem comprimitur, vel in Nidorem tenuatur, subducitur Bonis, sed DEO Elementorum custodio reservatur. The Body whether it be dry’d into Powder, resolv’d into Moisture, reduc’d to Ashes, or evaporated into Air, is indeed taken away from Good Men, but still the custody of the Elements is reserv’d to GOD. Some have been accounted a rigid sort of Stoicks, and void of all Humanity, for this Reason only, because they averr’d it profited nothing, whether the Body corrupted above or beneath the Earth. Thus Lucan, Lib. 7.

And that Favorite-Courtier Mecænas was wont to say:

But this these spoke only in respect to the Soul, which could receive no Hurt nor Damage from the Bodies being cast out unbury’d; therefore they seemingly ridicul’d and despis’d it, the better to fortifie Men against any fear of the want of Burial, yet they firmly believ’d that all those who were depriv’d thereof, were the most miserable and wretched of Creatures, and that their Souls continually wander’d, as Virgil elegantly expresses, Æneid. 6. v. 325. where Æneas asking the Cybil why such a number of Souls stood crowding near the Stygian Lake, and were refus’d a Passage, he receiv’d this Answer:

Some again are induc’d perhaps to think the care of Burial needless, because there is no Sense in a Dead Body, as the Proverb has it, Mortui non dolent; and others reject it for this Reason, Quia sentienti Onus est Terra, nihil sentienti, supervacaneum. For the Earth’s a Burthen to him that is sensible of it, but none to him that is not.

Diogenes the Cynic Philosopher, among the rest of his Whimsies, despis’d Sepulture, and when he was told he must thereby become a Prey to the Beasts and Birds, he gave them this jocose Advice, Si id metues, ponite juxta me Bacillum, quo abigam eos. If you fear that, place my Staff by me that I may drive them away. Quid poteris nihil sentiens? What can you do if you are sensible of nothing? Reply’d his Friend. To which he answer’d, Quid igitur Ferarum laniatus oberit nihil sentienti? If I am not sensible, how can their Teeth affect me? At other times he was wont to say on the like Occasion, Si Canes meum lacerabunt Cadaver, Hyrcanorum nactus fuero Sepulturam, Si Vultures, Iberiorum; quod si nullum Animal accederet, ipsum Tempus: Pulcherimam fore Sepulturam, Corpore pretiosissimis Rebus, Sole, inquam & Imbribus absumpto. If the Dogs eat my Carcass, I shall have the Sepulture of the Hyrcanians, if Vultures, of the Iberians; but if no Animal come near me, then shall I be consum’d by Time, and, What a fine sort of Burial must that needs be, to have my Body reduc’d to Dust by two of the most precious Things in Nature, the Sun and Showers? Likewise Demonactes being told, if he were flung out unbury’d, as he desir’d, the Dogs would tear him to pieces, he wittily answer’d, Quid incommodi, si mortuus alicui sim usui? What hurt can it do me, if after I am Dead I do somebody Good?