his own; entertained after in the Civill wars,and revengeful contentionsof Rome.

mortall.

f And

therefore ption of his

the Infcri

Tomb was

But as many Nations embraced, and many left it indifferent, so others too much affected, or ftrictly declined this practice. The Indian Brachmans seemed too great friends unto fire, who burnt themselves alive, and thought it the nobleft way to end their dayes in fire; according to the expreffion of the Indian, burning himfelf at Athens, in his last words upon the pyre unto the amazed fpectators, Thus I make my felfe ImBut the Chaldeans the great Idolaters made accordingly. of fire, abhorred the burning of their Nic.Damafc. carcaffes, as a pollution of that Deity. The Perfian Mag declined it upon the like fcruple, and being only follicitous about their bones, exposed their flesh tọ the prey of Birds and Dogges. And the Perfees now in India, which expose their bodies unto Vultures, and endure not fo much as feretra or Beers of Wood, the proper Fuell of fire, are led on with such niceties. But whether the ancient Germans who burned their dead, held any fuch fear to pollute their Deity of Herthus, or B 4

the

the earth, we have no Authentick conjeЯure.

The Egyptians were afraid of fire, not as a Deity, but a devouring Element, mercilefly confuming their bodies, and leaving too little of them; and therefore by precious Embalments, depofiture in dry earths, or handfome inclosure in glaffes, contrived the notableft wayes of integrall confervation. And from fuch Ægyptian fcruples imbibed by Pythagoras, it may be conjectured that Numa and the Pythagoricall Sect firft waved the fiery folurion.

The Scythians who fwore by winde and fword, that is, by life and death, were fo farre from burning their bodies, that they declined all interrment, and made their graves in the ayr: And the Ichthyophagi or fish-eating Nations about Ægypt, affected the Sea for their grave: Thereby declining vifible corruption, and reftoring the debt of their bodies. Whereas the old Heroes in Homer, dreaded nothing more than water or drowning; probably upon the old opinion of the fiery fubftance of the foul, only extinguishable by that Element; And

there

therefore the Poet emphatically implieth the totall deftruction in this kinde of death, which happened to Ajax Oileus 8.

Which

reades

The old * Balearians had a peculiar Magius mode, for they used great Urnes and ἐξαπόλωλα. much wood, but no fire in their burials, Diodorus while they bruifed the flesh and bones Siculus. of the dead, crowded them into Urnes, and laid heapes of wood upon them. And the * Chinois without cremation or * Ramufus urnall interrment of their bodies, make in Navigat ufe of trees and much burning, while they plant a Pine-tree by their grave, and burn great numbers of printed draughts of flaves and horses over it, civilly_content with their companies in effigie, which barbarous Nations exact unto reality.

Christians abhorred this way of obsequies, and though they stickt not to give their bodies to be burnt in their lives, detefted that mode after death; affecting rather a depofiture than abfumption, and properly fubmitting unto the fentence of God, to return not unto ashes but unto duft againe, conformable unto the practice of the Patriarchs, the

interr

Martialis

the Bishop. Cyprian.

Amos 6.

terrment of our Saviour, of Peter, Paul, and the ancient Martyrs. And fo farre at laft declining promifcuous enterrment with Pagans, that some have fuffered Ecclefiaftical cenfures, for making no fcruple thereof.

The Muffelman beleevers will never admit this fiery resolution. For they hold a present trial from their black and white Angels in the grave; which they must have made fo hollow, that they may rife upon their knees.

The Jewish Nation, though they entertained the old way of inhumation, yet fometimes admitted this practice. For the men of Jabesh burnt the body of Saul. And by no prohibited practice to avoid contagion or pollution, in time of pestilence, burnt the bodies of their friends h. 10. And when they burnt not their dead bodies, yet fometimes used great burnings neare and about them, deducible from the expreffions concerning Jehoram, Sedechias, and the fumptuous pyre of Asa: ¡Sueton. in And were fo little averse from Pagan vita. Jul. burning, that the Jews lamenting the death of Cæfar their friend, and revenger on Pompey, frequented the place where

Caf.

his

his body was burnt for many nights together. And as they raifed noble Monuments and Mausoleums for their own Na tion*, fo they were not fcrupulous in erecting fome for others, according to the practice of Daniel, who left that laft. ing fepulchrall pyle in Echbatana, for the Medean and Perfian Kings1.

*As that magnifi cent fepul⚫ chral Mo

nument erected by

Simon. Mach.1.13. 1 Κατασκέυdoμa day. μασίως πε

whereof a

alwayes the

But even in times of fubjection and hottest use, they conformed not unto the Jewish Romane practice of burning; whereby Prieft had the Prophecy was fecured concerning cuftody the body of Chrift, that it should not fee unto fofecorruption, or a bone should not be bro- phus his dayes. Fof ken; which we beleeve was alfo provi- Lib.10. dentially prevented, from the Souldiers Antiq. Spear and nails that paft by the little bones both in his hands and feet: Not of ordinary contrivance, that it should not corrupt on the Croffe, according to the Laws of Romane Crucifixion, or an hair of his head perish, though obfervablein Jewish customes, to cut the hairs of Malefactors,

Nor in their long co-habitation with Egyptians, crept into a custome of their exact embalming, wherein deeply flashing the muscles, and taking out the

brains