World, and the Warmth and Influence of the Spring is come, the joyful Spring of the Resurrection, it shall be enliven'd, and shoot up, and eternally flourish. * For this Corruptible must put on Incorruption, and this Mortal must put on Immortality. O Death, where is thy Sting! O Grave, where is thy Victory! Thanks be to GOD, who giveth us the Victory through our LORD JESUS CHRIST. There is another Custom used in some Places at the Procession of Funerals, which pays a due Honour to the Dead, and gives Comfort and Consolation to the Living; and that is, the carrying out the Dead with Psalmody. This was an antient Custom of the Church; for in some of the earliest Ages, they carried out their Dead to the Grave with singing of Psalms and Hymns. Thus Socrates tell us, That when the Body of Babylas the Martyr was removed by the Order of Julian the Apostate, the Christians + with their Women and Children, rejoiced and sung Psalms all the Way, as they bore the Corps from Dauphne to Antioch: Thus was + Paula buried at Bethlehem; thus did St. Anthony * Cor. 1. 15. Epitaphium Pauli. Hoi kata, &c. Soc. Lib. 3. C. 17. Hierom. Ep. 27.-Ibid. in Vit. Paul. D2 bury bury Paul the Hermite; and thus were the Generality of Men buried after the three first Centuries, when Pesrecution ceased. In Imitation of this, it is still customary in several Parts of this Nation, to carry out the Dead with singing of Psalms and Hymns of Triumph; to shew that they have ended their spiritual Warfare, that they have finished their Gourse with Joy, and are become Conquerors; which surely is a Matter of no little Consolation for the loosing of our Friend. And how becoming is it to pay such Honour to the Body! How is it imitating the blessed Angels, who rejoyced at Meeting of the Soul, and carrying it to Heaven. For as they rejoyce at her Conversion on Earth so most certainly they rejoyce at her going to Heaven. And as they rejoyce at carrying of the Soul thither, so we, in Imitation of them, at the carrying out the Body to the Grave. They rejoyce that the Soul hath got out of a World of Sin, we that the Body out of a World of Trouble; they that the Soul can sin no more, we that the Body can no more suffer; they that the Soul enjoys Glory and Happiness, we that the Body rests from its Labours. When therefore we attend the Corps of a Neighbour Neighbour or Relation, and this decent Ceremony is perform'd, let it also have a share of our Thoughts, and excite in us Joy and Comfort, and Thanksgiving and Praise. And when these Customs are so observed, they will be of great Advantage to us, making us still fitter for the heavenly Life. And surely a Thing of this Good and Profit, is much to be preferr'd to what hath in it nothing but Undecency and Irreverence; such is our laughing and jesting, and telling of News, when we accompany a Neighbour to the Grave. There is indeed a Mean to be observed, as in all other Things, so in this; we must neither be too sad, nor too merry; we must not be so merry as to throw off all the Signs of Affection and Love, all the Tokens of Esteem and Humanity; nor * must we sorrow even as others, which have no Hope. But we must be so mérry as to be able to sing Psalms, and so afflicted as to be ex cited to pray. * 1 Thess. i. 4. 13, † Jam, v. 15. D 3 OBSER OBSERVATIONS ON CHAP. III. THE antient Christians testified their Abhorrence of Heathen Rites: They rejected therefore the Pagan Custom of burning the Dead, depositing the inanimate Body entire in the Ground.-The carrying forth to the Church, and from thence to the Grave, was performed by near Relations, or Persons of such Dignity as the Circumstances of the Deceased required.-Singing of Psalms, in Exultation for the Conquest of the deceased Friend over Hell, Sin, and Death, was the great Ceremony used in all Funeral Processions among the antient Christians. St. Jerom, in the Epitaph of Paula, informs us, that Bishops were what in modern Language we call Under-bearers at her Funeral.— The learned Durant † gives us many Quotations from the antient Christian 'Writers, to prove that those of the highest Orders of Clergy thought it not a Reproach to their Dignity to carry the Bier, How different an Idea of this Office prevails in our Times!-Something instead of the Pall used at present to cover the Coffin, appears by the same * Paulam translatam fuisse Episcoporum manibus, cervicem feretro subjicientibus. Durant, p. 227. + Duranti de Ritibus, p. 227. In Nobilibus, aureum velamentum super feretrum, quo Corpus obtegeretur, apponi consuetum. Ibid. p. 225. Writer to have been of great Antiquity. He speaks also of black* used in Mourning. -St. Cyprian seemed to inveigh against it, as the Indication of Sorrow upon an Event which to the Christian was Matter of Joy.-Mr. Bourne takes no Notice of Torches †, which are still in Use on particular Occasions in Funeral Processions.-It appears by Durant, that this Custom has been of a long standing. -We farther learn from this Ritualist, that it was customary to invite the Poor to Funerals. I find a beautiful Thought on this Subject||, in St. * Induebantur atris vestibus, præsertim apud Gallos-Hunc ta+ men lugubrem et atrum amictum videtur improbare Cyprian. Serm. de Mortalitate. Ibid. + Dum autem Funus efferebatur, faces præferebantur-Constantii Corpus delatum fuisse nocturnis Cantionibus et cereorum ignibus. Ibid. p. 228. Gallos funus honorificè curasse et multitudinem Luminum, splendorem sibi etiam per diem vendicantem, repercusso solis radio, refulsisse. Ibid. Mr. Strutt tells us the burning of Torches was very honourable. -To have a great many was a special Mark of Esteem in the Person, who made the Funeral, to the Deceased. Vol. II. p. 108, of his Antiquities. Thus, in the Epitaph of Budè: Que n'a-t-on plus en Torches dependu, St. Genevieve, Paris. Prætereà convocabantur et invitabantur necdum Sacerdotes et Religiosi, sed et Egeni Pauperes. Had our famous Poet, Mr. Pope, an eye to this in ordering, by Will, poor Men to support his Pall? | Mr. Strutt in his English Æra tells us, that Sir Robert Knolles (in the 8th Year of Henry IV.) died at his Manor in Norfolk, and his dead Body was brought in a Litter to London with great Pomp and much Torch Light, and it was buried in the White Friars Church" where was done for him a solemne Obsequie, with a great D 4 66 1 |