It may farther be ask’d, Why Plato, Aristotle, and other Philosophers, famous for Learning and Piety, despis’d the Rites and Ceremonies of Sepulture? To which I answer, They did not really Despise them, nor durst they say they were not to be at all: They said only, if by chance they were neglected, it could do no hurt. Nor lastly did Lucretius contemn Sepulture, he only laughed at those who procur’d it for this Reason, because they thought there still remain’d a Sense in the Dead, as you will perceive by these Lines of his, Lib. 3.

Hereby ’tis plain Lucretius only blames and chides those who are of a doubtful and wavering Mind, and that openly confess there can be no future Sense remaining after Death, yet privately hope within themselves that some Parts will remain, and therefore mightily dread the want of Burial, nay, violently abhor being a Prey to wild Beasts and Birds. This I take to be a natural hint of the Resurrection of the Body and Immortality of the Soul, tho’ outwardly these Pagans disown’d both:

We cannot believe there were ever any Philosophers in the World, of such obdurate Hearts, as strictly to deny Burial, tho’ out of a seeming Arrogance they despis’d it; but that they only pretended so lest their Antagonists should think the want of Burial an inflicted Punishment, therefore they were the easier mov’d, as much as in them lay, to expose them. |Why the Frenchdeny’d it.| Thus Pausanias in Phocic. gives an Instance of some French who deny’d Burial to the slain in Battel, alledging it was a Ceremony nothing to be esteem’d of; but the true Reason they did it was, That they might bring the greater Terror on their Enemies, and make them to have the worse Opinion of their Cruelty. It must be granted, the Dead have no sense of any Change or Dissolution they undergo, and that it is a ridiculous Opinion of Tyrants, to think to punish the Body by mangling it, and delivering it to be torn to pieces and devour’d; neither do Bodies suffer any Hurt or Damage in respect to the Soul, after what manner soever they are bury’d: Yet you must grant these sufficient Reasons why the Dead should be taken care of, and not be despis’d and cast away; for as we esteem the Body the Temple of GOD, and Receptacle of the Soul, so ought we honourably to Interr it with those Funeral Obsequies as are becoming its Quality and Dignity.

Now we must look upon Burial to be a Work enjoin’d both by the Law of Nature and Nations, and not only by the Human but by the Divine Law; for the most Barbarous as well as Civiliz’d People of the World have ever paid some Respect and Observance to their Dead, tho’ perhaps after different Manners, by Burying them in the Water, Earth, Air, Fire, &c. The common Dictates of Nature have taught them to abhor such dismal Objects and offensive Smells as dead Bodies must necessarily present, and their Religion has shown them the Inhumanity and Cruelty of neglecting their Duty to them: Nay, if we look into the Natural History of Animals, we shall find some of them excelling Man in this particular, by taking a more than ordinary Care of their Dead, as is to be seen not only in Cranes, Elephants and Dolphins, &c. As Ælian de Animalibus, Lib. 2. cap. 1. and Lib. 12. cap. 6. and Franzius in his History of Animals, cap. 4. Peter Faber in his Semestrium, Pliny and others observe, but likewise in Ants, Bees and other Insects; for as Grotius in his Treatise, De Jure Belli & Pacis, Lib. 11. cap. 19. rightly observes, |Observ’d by Brutes, &c. as well as Men.| Nullum est in Homine Factum laudabile, quin non Vestigium, in alio aliquo Animantium Genere DEUS posuerit. There is nothing done by Man worthy of Commendation, but GOD has imprinted some Imitation of it even in Brutes.

A Corps lying unbury’d and Putrifying, is not only a dismal Aspect to our Eyes, offensive to our Nose, and ungrateful to all our External Senses, but even horrid in our very private Apprehensions and secret Conceptions; nay to hear it but only nam’d, is so very unnatural and unpleasant to us, that we care not to entertain the least Thought of Death, even to the deferr’d Time of our Expiration. What presence of Mind can enable a Fellow-Creature to behold such a miserable Object as this, express’d by its dismal Aspect, deform’d Proportion, fœtid Smell, putrid Carcass, and the like, and this perhaps of one who was but just now your Bosom-Friend or the World’s Favorite, a Prince worthy of Immortality for his Wisdom, Piety, Valour, Conduct, &c. and justly admir’d for the Beauty of his Person, Gracefulness of his Mien, and Conformity of all the External Parts of his Body, as well as Internal Qualifications of his Mind? Certainly common Humanity and Self-Preservation would alone persuade us to Inter him out of our Sight, or else preserve him from a State of Corruption and Deformity by Embalming.

I have before observ’d how Beasts receiv’d the Infection of the Murrain from a Putrefaction of their own Bodies; now I will shew you how they likewise, by Natural Instinct, avoid each other in such like Calamities: The Sound shun the Company of the Infected, and they reciprocally separate from the rest to Mourn by themselves. A wounded Bird leaves the Flight: A Stag (when Shot) forsakes the Herd and flies to the Desarts: And every Diseas’d Creature retires into some solitary Place, where its last Care seems to be, that of providing for its Burial. |Every Creature takes care of its own Burial.| Reptiles creep into Holes, and Birds into their Nests, or the Bottoms of thick Hedges: Rabbets die in their Burrows: Foxes, Badgers and Wolves, &c. in their Dens, after which nothing will Inhabit there. So that they seem to know they shall lie undisturb’d in those Dormitories, which they took care in their Lives Time to provide and dig in order to their Interment; like as some Hermits, who, during their Lives, made their Cave their Habitation, but when Dead their Tomb.

The larger sort of Domestic and Tame Creatures seem likewise to endeavour this, as much as they can, as may be observ’d from Horses, Oxen, Sheep, &c. who when they decline and draw near their Deaths, seek either the thickest part of a Wood, a Dell or Gravel-Pit in a Common, or deep Ditch in a Field, where they may lay themselves down, as in a Grave, and die: They seem to desire nothing more of their Master, whom they have all their Lives faithfully serv’d, than to cover their Bodies with the Earth.

The lesser Tame Animals, as Dogs, Cats, &c. know they have no occasion to take that Care of themselves, for when they die, their Master is oblig’d to remove them out of his House and bury them: |How Insects bury themselves.| But as for Insects, they (fearing Mankind should be regardless of their inconsiderable Bodies, and not be so grateful as to take care of their Funerals, tho’ they had consum’d their Lives in making Food and Raiment for their Master) seem with a more extraordinary Contrivance, and admirable Art, to provide for their own Burial. The little Bee works its Honey-Comb for the Benefit of Man while it lives, and for its own Sepulture when it dies; the Comb serving for its Tomb, and the Wax and remaining Honey for its Embalment, conformable to that Saying of Martial, in his Fourth Book and Thirty Second Epigram:

The Silk-Worm (which also willingly parts with her Stock and Labour for the Benefit of Mankind) makes a small reserve of Silk, sufficient for her Winding-Sheet, which when she has finish’d, she dies therein, and is as nobly Interr’d, as all the Egyptian Art, with its fine Painted Rowlers of Cyprus, Lawn or Silk could make her.

Other Insects, as Flies, Ants, Gnats, and the like, which are not dispos’d with Organs to perform such Works, yet have this in particular, that they can outdare the most resolute Indian |Some are Burn’d and others Embalm’d.| (when, without any previous Exhortation, they suddenly leap into the Funeral Pyre of a Candle or Torch, and outvie the costly Embalming of Arabia) when they voluntarily fly into liquid Amber, and by that means obtain a more noble and incorruptible Sepulture than any other Creature. These have had Poets to write Funeral Orations to their immortal Praise, as the two Epigrams in Martial of a Viper and Pismire in some measure testifie, Lib. 4. Ep. 59. and Lib. 6. Ep. 15. Witness also Brassavolus of the Pismire, and Cardanus’s Mausoleum for a Flie: Nor could Virgil (the Prince of Poets) omit taking notice of the well order’d Funerals of the Bees, Georg. Lib. 4. l. 255.

Ælian, Lib. 5. cap. 49. reports, That if one Elephant finds another dead, he will not pass by ’till he has got together a great heap of Earth and flung it over his Carcass; so, in all other Creatures, Nature has provided both Burial and a Grave for them. |Brutes Bury’d with Pomp and Magnificence.| Nay it is yet further remarkable, that such Brutes as have either prov’d faithful or loving to their Masters, or done any extraordinary Action, have been bury’d with wonderful Magnificence, and had Tombs and Inscriptions made in Honour of them. Cimon the Athenian bury’d those Horses he had been thrice a Victor with in the Olympick Games, with great Pomp near his own Sepulchre. Also Alexander the Great made a magnificent Funeral for his Horse Bucephalus, building a City where he dy’d, and calling it after that Beast’s Name in memory of him. After his Example, several of the Roman Emperors and Cæsars, such as Augustus, Caligula, Nero, Adrian, Antoninus, Commodus, &c. bury’d their favourite Horses, and adorn’d their Tombs with Epitaphs, as you may find in Barthius, Lib. 23. cap. 8. Pliny, Lib. 8. cap. 22. Affirms such Horses as had conquer’d at the Olympick Games, were bury’d and had Tombs and Pyramids erected to perpetuate their Fame.

Xantippus carefully bury’d his Dogs, and, as Kornmannus reports, Polliacus erected, in the Garden of Cardinal Urbin at Rome, Columns of the finest Marble, of vast Expence, in Memory of his beloved Bitch, on which he inscrib’d this Epitaph:

Also in the House of that Famous Italian Poet Francis Petrarch, at Arqua, near Padua, there is a Tomb of a Cat, adorn’d with an Elegy, which Santorellus in his Post-Praxis Medica, p. 5. has Printed, with others of a Mule, a Crane, &c. Pliny, Lib. 10. cap. 43. says, a Crow (which imitated Human Voice, and which was wont every Morning to salute the Senators by their Names) was bury’d honourably, being carry’d out on the Shoulders of two Æthiopians, with a Crown before it, and a Trumpet sounding; the Person that kill’d it being ston’d to Death. Ælian, Lib 6. Animal. cap. 7. tells us, Marrhes, King of Egypt, built a Sepulchre for a Raven, which was wont to carry his Letters to and fro under its Wing; and, Lib. 7. cap. 41. he says, Lacydes, a Peripatetic Philosopher, had a Goose which us’d to follow him up and down, both at home and abroad, and whom for that Reason he Bury’d with the same Honour and Respect as he would have done a Brother or Son. The Stag which warr’d against the Trojans, was also honour’d with a Tomb; but it were endless to relate all the Brutes the Pagans have given Burial to, as Rhodiginus witnesses in Antiq. Lect. 58. cap. 13. The Parthians were accustom’d to bury their Horses, and the Molossians their Dogs, as Statius the Poet observes, Lib. 2. Sylvar. in Epicedio Pileti.

But the Egyptians surpass’d them all, for they Embalm’d the Bodies of several Animals, as Cats, Crocodiles, Hawks and the like, that so they might keep them the longer to adore and admire: If therefore Pagans have been thus careful to honour Brutes with all the Rights of Burial, how much more ought we who are Christians to afford this last Duty to one another?

We find in the first Age of the World, says Cambden, the Care of Burial was so great, that Fathers laid a strict Charge on their Children, concerning translating their Bodies to their Graves, every one being desirous to return in Sepulchra Majorum, into the Sepulchres of his Ancestors. Thus those Holy Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and the rest, did not only lay the heaviest Commands about their being bury’d, but also about transferring their Bodies to such Places as they nam’d: So Jacob, at his Death, charg’d his Son Joseph to carry his Body into the Sepulchre of his Fathers, Gen. 47. 30. and 49. 29. And Joseph commanded his Brethren they should remember and tell their Posterity, that when they went away into the Land of Promise, they should carry his Bones along with them, Gen. 50. 25. Now this Filial Care was not only their last and greatest Duty to their Parents, |Burial a Work acceptable to GOD.| but also a Work well pleasing and acceptable to GOD; an Example whereof we have in Tobit, who being blind, GOD sent his Angel Raphael to cure him, as a Reward for his pious Care in burying those who had been slain by King Sennacherib in his wrath, and cast without the Walls of Nineveh: But altho’ the King’s Servants forceably took away his Goods, and sought to put him to Death; yet when he heard one more had been strangl’d, and cast out into the Market-Place, he was so zealous in his Care, that tho’ he was just set down to Meat, he tasted not of it, ’till he had fetch’d him up into a private Room, and when the Sun was set, he ventur’d to make a Grave and bury him. |To our Saviour.| Likewise our Saviour (being to rise again the Third Day) commended that good Work of those Religious Women, who pour’d pretious Ointments, with sweet Odours, on his Head and Body, which they did in order to his Burial. Moreover, the Gospel has crown’d those with immortal Praise that took down Christ’s Body from the Cross, and gave it honest and honourable Burial. This signifies, says St. Austin, that the Providence of GOD extends even to the Bodies of the Dead (for he is pleas’d with such good Works) and builds up a Belief of the Resurrection, by which, says he, we may learn this profitable Lesson, viz. How great the Reward of Alms done to the Living must be, since this Duty and Kindness shown even to the Dead is not forgotten of GOD.

Burial of the Dead was accounted by the Antients a Work of Piety and Religion, because they esteem’d it both an Act of Justice and Mercy:

Of Justice, in that Earth should be return’d to Earth and Dust to Dust; for, What could be more just than to restore to Mother Earth her Children, that as she had furnish’d them at first with a Material Being, Food, Raiment, Sustenance, and all things necessary, so she might at last receive them again into her Bosom, and afford them lodging ’till the Resurrection? |Of Mercy.| The Antients also thought it an Act of Mercy to hide the Dead in the Earth, that the Organs of such Divine Souls might not be torn and devour’d by wild Beasts, Birds, &c. Cicero in his Oration for Quinctius calls Burial an Act of Humanity. |Of Humanity.| Valerius Maximus, Lib. 5. cap. 1. Humanity and Mildness. Seneca de Benefic. Lib. 5 cap. 20. Humanity and Mercy. Ammianus Marcellinus, Lib. 31. |Of Piety.| A necessary Office of Piety; and St. Ambrose in the beginning of an Oration of his on the Death of the Emperor Theodosius, The last and greatest Office of Piety. Isocrates commending the Athenians for the great Care they took to bury their Dead, says, It was a mark and token of their Piety towards the Gods, since it was they and not Men that had establish’d that Law. Also Servius observes Virgil call’d Æneas by the name of Pious, because of the Funeral Honours, he, with so much Care and Application, had always paid to his Relations and Friends. Plato speaking of the several kinds of Justice, has not omitted what belongs to the Dead; nay Aristotle thought it more just to help those that were depriv’d of Life, than to assist the Living. The Latin Phrase also intimates how just a thing it is to bury the Dead, where it calls Funeral Rites, Justa Exequiarum, or Justa Funebria, quia justum est, justa facere, solvere, peragere. Nay it has no other appellation in that Language than that of Justice, and in Greek of a lawful Custom, Piety and Godliness, so that amongst both the Romans and Grecians, who have been the two most potent and civiliz’d Nations of the World, when they would express one had been Interr’d, they said, they had done him Right or Justice, and such as neglected to do the like they accounted void of all Piety and Humanity.

And to shew how Religious an Act it is to bury the Dead; the Gentiles assign’d the Care of all Funerals and Sepulture to certain Gods they term’d Manes, whose chief was Pluto, call’d also Summanus, whence all Tombs and Monuments came to be dedicated, Diis Manibus. Homer, Euripedes, Aristotle and others have accounted Sepulture an Honour and Reward to Mens Actions; and on the contrary look’d on all such as miserable and unhappy whose Bodies lying unbury’d, wanted that last Happiness.

Decent Burial, with suitable Attendants of Kindred and Friends, according to the Quality of the Person (says Weever of Funeral Monuments, p. 25.) is an Honour to the Deceas’d. Hezekiah, says the Text, slept with his Fathers, and they bury’d him in the highest Sepulchres of the Sons of David, and all Judah and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem did him Honour at his Death, 2 Chron. 32. 33. Thus in all Ages Burial has been accounted an Happiness and Quiet to the Mind, and a Favour from GOD, whereas the want of it has been look’d on as an Evil and Misery, a Curse and Punishment, a Disgrace and Ignominy.

First, In the Holy Scripture it is call’d an Happiness, Favour and Kindness: This was foretold by Ahijah, and to be shewn to Abijah, 1 Kings 14. 13. And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him; for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the Grave, because in him there is found some good Thing towards the Lord GOD of Israel, &c. It was accounted a Glory to be bury’d in a Sepulchre, even to Kings who were laid up in stately Tombs and Monuments, as in their Beds, and thus the Prophet Isaiah speaks, Chap. 14. ver. 18. All the Kings of the Nations lye in Glory, every one in his own House. By the same Prophet GOD comforted Zedekiah King of Judah when he was taken Captive, telling him he should never die in War or Battel, or be deny’d Burial; but that the King of Babylon should give his People leave to bury him in an honourable manner, and with such Solemnities as the burning of sweet Odours, &c. at his Funeral, as they were wont to use at the Exequies of their Kings, who liv’d belov’d of their Country, 2 Chron. 16. 14. But thou shalt die in Peace (says Jeremiah to him, Chap. 34. ver. 5.) and with the Burnings of thy Fathers, the former Kings which were before thee, so shall they burn Odours for thee, and lament thee, &c.

To die a natural Death, to be lamented and bury’d, and to lye in the Sepulchre of their Fathers, was ever accounted a great Honour and Happiness among the antient Jews, for which the Scripture-Phrase, throughout the Old Testament, is Sleeping, which implies lying at Rest and undisturb’d as well as Dying. Thus, in 2 Kings 8. 24. it is said, And Joram slept with his Fathers, and was bury’d with his Fathers in the City of David. And 9. 28. His Servants carry’d Ahaziah in a Chariot to Jerusalem, and bury’d him in a Sepulchre with his Fathers in the City of David. And Cap. 15. ver. 7. So Azariah slept with his Fathers, &c. Also, ver. 22. and 28. of the same Chapter, and in many other places, as 1 Kings 2. 10. So David slept with his Fathers, and was bury’d in the City of David. By all this it is to be observ’d, that in this City was the usual Royal Burying-Place, where both David and all his Successors, that were of any Note or Renown, were bury’d. This appears likewise by 1 Kings 11. 43. 2 Chron. 12. 16. and 14. 1. and 16. 14. and 21. 1. David’s Sepulchre was made of such durable Materials, and so well kept and repair’d by his Posterity, that it continu’d ’till the Apostles Time (Acts 2. 22.) which was the space of almost 2000 Years.

On the contrary, to die an unnatural Death, and in another Country, as also to be depriv’d of the Sepulchre of ones Fathers or Ancestors, was always esteem’d a note of Infamy and a kind of Curse. Thus, in 1 Kings 13. 22. the seduc’d Prophet, because he disobey’d the Word of the Lord, was reprov’d by him who was the occasion of his Error, as he had it in Command from GOD, and withal told, That his Carcass should not come into the Sepulchre of his Fathers. Isaiah speaking in derision of the Death and Sepulture of the King of Babylon, which was not with his Fathers, in that his Tyranny was so much abhorr’d, thus notes his Unhappiness, Chap. 14. 19, 20. Thou art cast out of thy Grave, like an abominable Branch; and as the Raiment of those that are slain, thrust thro’ with a Sword; and shall go down to the Stones of the Pit, as a Carcass trodden under Foot. Thou shalt not be join’d with thy Fathers in Burial. That is, he should want all the Honours of Sepulture, and all such Funeral Rites as were to have been paid to him as a most potent King, and that he should not be admitted to lye in the Grave amongst his Ancestors, but that his Corps should remain neglected above Ground unbury’d, and be trodden to pieces like vile Carrion.

The want of Burial proceeds also from a Judgment of GOD, as will appear from the Example of Jehoiakim, the Son of Josiah King of Judah, whom for his great Wickednesses, such as Covetousness, Oppression, shedding innocent Blood and the like, GOD threatned with the want of Burial (a severe Sentence!) and that he should have no solemn Funeral or honourable Sepulture, such as Kings usually have, nay, not so much as an ordinary Burial among the Graves of the common People, Jer. 26. 23. but be cast out like Carrion in some remote Place: And Chap. 22. 19. |To be bury’d like an Ass.| He shall be bury’d with the Burial of an Ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the Gates of Jerusalem, that is, as an Ass is wont to be bury’d, he being more worthy the Society of Beasts than Men. The Greeks call the Burial of an Ass, ἄταφον τάφον, according to that Expression of Cicero, Insepulta Sepultura; and Sanctius expounds it, that to be bury’d like an Ass, is to be cast out into a sordid and open Place, which neither covers the horrid and obscene Parts of the Body, nor hinders the Dogs or Birds from tearing it to pieces, but as in Chap. 36. ver. 30. His dead Body shall be cast out in the Day-Time to the Heat, and in the Night to the Frost; that being so expos’d, it may the sooner putrefie, and become the more vile and loathsom; and that the sight of a King’s Body, in such a condition, should be an hideous Spectacle and horrid Monument of GOD’s heavy Wrath and Indignation unto all that should behold it, Isaiah 66. 24. Wherefore Ecclesiastes wisely concludes, Chap. 6. 3. A Man had better have never been born than to have no Burial. The People of Israel (crying unto GOD against the barbarous Tyranny of the Babylonians, who spoil’d GOD’s Inheritance, polluted his Temple, destroy’d his Religion, and murther’d his Chosen Nation) amongst other Calamities, thus complain for the want of Sepulture, Psal. 79. 2, 3. The dead Bodies of thy Servants have they given to be Meat to the Fowls of the Heavens, the Flesh of thy Saints to the Beasts of the Earth. Their Blood have they shed like to Water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them. Here the Prophet observes, that GOD suffers his Church sometimes to fall to great Extremities, to exercise their Faith before he delivers them; as at other times he deprives the Wicked of Sepulture, to bring them to Repentance by such an ignominious and shameful Punishment. Thus, for the Pride and Wickedness of Jezebel, the Prophet Elijah pronounces GOD’s Vengeance against her, saying, In the Portion of Jezreel shall Dogs eat the Flesh of Jezebel, and her Carcass shall be as Dung upon the face of the Field, so that they shall not say, this is Jezebel, and there shall be none to bury her, 2 Kings 9. 10, 36, 37. |To become like Dung rotting upon the Earth.| By the Comparison to Dung is shown how odious and contemptible a Thing it is to be cast out unbury’d, and to be trodden under Foot, to lye expos’d to the Air and Weather, to rot and stink or become Food to Birds, Beasts and Reptiles. Jeremiah foretelling the Desolation of the Jews, acquaints them, Chap. 19. 7. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, I will cause them to fall by the Sword before their Enemies, and their Carcasses will I give to be Meat to the Fowls of the Heavens, and to the Beasts of the Field, and none shall fright them away, Chap. 7. 33. Deut. 28. 26. Also speaking of their Kings, Princes, Priests and Prophets, he tells them that Their Bones shall be spread before the Sun and Moon, &c. they shall not be bury’d, but be for Dung upon the face of the Earth, Jer. 8. 2. In other places of his Prophesie he tells them, They shall die of grievous Deaths and Diseases, they shall be neither bury’d nor lamented, but lye rotting like Dung, and be Meat for the Fowls of the Heavens and Beasts of the Earth, Chap. 16. 4. Chap. 25. 33. Chap. 34. 20. 1 Kings 14. 11. Chap. 21. 23, 24. 2 Kings 9. 10. and Ezek. 29. 4. Also in the 39. Chapter of the Prophet Ezekiel and the 17, 18, 19 and 20 Verses, GOD to shew his severe Judgment, calls the Fowls of the Air and Beasts of the Field to a Sacrifice of the Flesh and Blood of the Princes of the Earth, to eat their Fat and drink their Blood; abundance more Examples of the like nature the Scripture affords us.

Next we will consider what a miserable thing it was esteem’d, even by the Pagans, to lye cast out unbury’d. That disconsolate Mother of Euryalus, is not so much griev’d for the loss of her Son, who was slain in Battel, as for that he should be made a Prey to the Birds and Beasts, whom therefore she thus bewails:

Also the same Poet represents Tarquitus thus insulting over his conquer’d Enemy, Æn. 10. v. 557.

So great was the Honour of Sepulture amongst the Pagans, says Quenstedt, De Sepult. Vet. p. 24. |Sepulture deny’d Enemies out of Revenge.| That when they design’d to shew the greatest Envy and Reproach to their most inveterate Enemies, they depriv’d their Bodies of Sepulture, as is noted in the History of the Heroes in Homer, in the War between Polynices and Eteocles the Theban, and other antient Histories, as likewise in Claudian, De Bello Gild. v. 39. Now Mezentius fearing this, does not desire Æneas to spare his Life, but earnestly entreats him to afford him Burial, Virg. Æneid, Lib. 10. v. 901.

Turnus also intreats the like Favour:

However, generally speaking, Sepulture was observ’d as well in Time of War as Peace, to which purpose Heralds or Embassadors were wont to be sent to make Truce ’till they could bury their Dead; which if deny’d, says Grotius, the Antients thought their War more lawful and just. Thus Hannibal, a sworn Enemy to the very Name of Romans, is said by Livy, Decad. 3. Lib. 2. to have sought the Bodies of Caius Flaminius, Tiberius Gracchus and Marcellus Roman Generals, conquer’d and slain by him, that he might bury them. Likewise Philip of Macedon is equally to be commended for his Humanity, in performing Funeral Rites and Ceremonies towards his deceas’d Enemies; of which see Peter Faber, Lib. 3. Semestr. cap. 13. p. 183. who also gives the like account of his Son Alexander, in that after he had overcome Darius, he granted leave to his Mother to bury him after what manner she pleas’d, and withal commanded the same Honour to be afforded the Persian Nobles; as also that all such Soldiers as were found slain should be bury’d with care, as is recorded by Q. Curtius, Lib. 3. Valerius Maximus likewise, Lib. 9. cap. 8. tells us the Athenians so strictly observ’d this Custom in their Wars, |Generals put to Death for neglecting it.| that they punish’d those Generals with Death that neglected to bury the Slain, tho’ otherwise they were Men of Valour and had done several extraordinary Exploits. |Others have perform’d it with great Care.| Plutarch in his Lives, informs us how careful Nicias, an Athenian General, was in this point, for he commanded his whole Army to halt, while he honour’d two slain Soldiers with Burial and a Tomb. The like pious Care is mention’d of Æneas to Misenus, by Virgil in his 6th Æneid, v. 232.

The Romans in general as well as the Grecians carefully bury’d their Enemies, nor would they defraud them of any Funeral Rites, says Suidas. The like Rhodiginus, Lect. Antiq. Lib. 17. testifies of the Hebrews, by whose Law the Enemy was not to be left unbury’d. Nor must we pass by the Humanity of the Northern People, who as Olaus Wormius in Monument. Danic. Lib. 1. cap. 6. writes, thought it deserving the greatest Praise, to exercise this Hospitable Piety of burying the Carcasses of their Enemies, to whom they bore no farther Malice after their Deaths, but afforded them friendly Sepulture. Amongst others, an Example of this nature is fetch’d out of Saxo, a most eloquent Danish Historian, who in the Third Book of his History, which he wrote about 500 Years ago, introduces Collerus pronouncing this wise and elegant Oration to his Enemy Horvendillus, with whom he was going to engage in Fight:

Quoniam, says he, Exitus in dubio manet, invicem Humanitati deferendum est, nec adeo Ingeniis indulgendum, ut Extrema negligantur Officia. Odium in Animis est adsit tamen Pietas, quæ Rigori demum opportuna succedat, nam etsi Mentium nos Discrimina separant, Naturæ tamen Jura conciliant. Horum quippe Consortio jungimur, quantuscunq; Animos Livor dissociet. Hæc itaque Pietatis nobis Conditio sit, ut Victum Victor Exequiis prosequatur. His enim suprema Humanitatis Officia inesse constat, quæ nemo Pius abhorruit. Utraq; Acies id Munus, Rigore deposito concorditer exequatur. Facesset post Fatum Livor, Simultasq; Funere sopiatur. Absit nobis tantæ Crudelitatis Specimen, ut quanquam Vivis Odium intercesserit, Alter alterius Cineres persequatur. Gloriosum Victori erit, si Victi Funus magnifice duxerit; nam qui defuncto Hosti Justa persolverit, superstitis sibi Favorem adsciscit, vivumq; Beneficiis vincit, quisquis extincto Studium Humanitatis impendet. Which may be thus English’d: By reason the Event of what we are going about is doubtfull, let us mutually engage to shew Humanity to each other, nor so far indulge our Passions as to neglect the last Duties. We have Malice in our Hearts, let there be likewise such a Piety as may opportunely succeed our Rigour; for tho’ a difference in our Minds happens to divide us, the Law of Nature will reunite us. Tho’ we are never so far seperated by Envy, this will bring us together again. Let it therefore be the Condition of our Piety, that the Conqueror follow the Herse of the Conquer’d. Herein the last Offices of Humanity consist, which no good Man ever yet refus’d. Let both Armies then suspend their Hatred to perform this Duty. After Death let Envy be remov’d and secret Prejudice disarm’d. May every kind of Cruelty forsake us, tho’ living we hated each other, let us lovingly accompany one anothers Ashes. ’Twill be a Glorious Thing in the Victor Magnificently to Interr the Vanquish’d; for he that performs Funeral Rites to a slain Enemy, will be sure to have a surviving Friend, and whoever employs his Study in Humanity towards the Dead, cannot thereby fail of obliging the Living.