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HYDRIOTAPHIA,

URN-BURIAL.

אזי

CHAPTER I.

N the deep discovery of the subterranean [1] world, a shallow part would satisfy some Shallowness of graves. enquirers; who, if two or three yards were open about the surface, would not care to rake the bowels of Potosi1, and regions towards the 2 centre. Nature hath furnished one part of the carth, and man another. The treasures of time lie high, in urns, coins, and monuments, scarce below the roots of some vegetables. Time hath endless rarities, and shows of all varieties; which reveals old things in heaven, makes new discoveries in earth, and even earth itself a discovery. That great antiquity America lay buried for thousands of years, and a large part of the earth is still in the urn unto us.

Though, if Adam were made out of an extract [2] of the earth, all parts might challenge a restitution, yet few have returned their bones far lower than they might receive them; not

1 The rich mountain of Peru.

CHAP. I. affecting the graves of giants, under hilly and

[3]

[4]

Two modes
of disposing
of the dead.
[5]

Burial the
older.

(Gen. xxiii.

heavy coverings, but content with less than their own depth, have wished their bones might lie soft, and the earth be light upon them. Even such as hope to rise again, would not be content with central interment, or so desperately to place their relicks as to lie beyond discovery, and in no way to be seen again; which happy contrivance hath made communication with our forefathers, and left unto our 3 view some parts, which they never beheld themselves.

Though earth hath engrossed the name, yet water hath proved the smartest grave; which in forty days swallowed almost mankind, and the living creation; fishes not wholly escaping, except the' salt ocean were handsomely contempered by a mixture of the fresh element.

Many have taken voluminous pains to determine the state of the soul upon disunion; but men have been most phantastical in the singular contrivances of their corporal dissolution: whilst the soberest nations have rested in two ways, of simple inhumation and burning.

That carnal interment or burying was of the elder date, the old examples of Abraham and the patriarchs are sufficient to illustrate; and & xxv. 9, 10.) were without competition, if it could be made (Deut. xxxiv. out that Adam was buried near Damascus, or 5, 6). Mount Calvary, according to some tradition. God himself, that buried but one, was pleased to make choice of this way, collectible from Scripture expression, and the hot contest be

4 tween Satan and the archangel, about discover- CHAP. I. ing the body of Moses. But the practice of Antiquity of Burning the burning was also of great antiquity, and of no dead. slender extent. For (not to derive the same (Jude 9.) from Hercules) noble descriptions there are hereof in the Grecian funerals of Homer, in the formal obsequies of Patroclus and Achilles; and somewhat elder in the Theban war, and solemn combustion of Meneceus, and Archemorus, contemporary unto Jair the eighth judge of Israel. Confirmable also among the Trojans, from the funeral pyre of Hector, burnt before the gates of Troy: and the burning of Penthesilea the Amazonian queen1: and long continuance of that practice, in the inward countries of Asia; while as low as the reign of Julian, we find that the king of Chionia2 burnt the body of his son, and interred the ashes in a silver urn.

3

The same practice extended also far west 3; [6] and, besides Herulians, Getes, and Thracians, Extent of the was in use with most of the Celta, Sarmatians, burning. practice of Germans, Gauls, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians; not to omit some use thereof among Cartha5 ginians and Americans. Of greater antiquity among the Romans than most opinion, or Pliny Roman seems to allow: for (beside the old Table Laws examples of burning. of burning or burying within the city*, of making

1 Quintus Calaber [Smyrnæus, Posthomer.], lib. i.

2 Gumbrates, king of Chionia, a country near Persia.(Ammianus Marcellinus.)

3 Arnold. Montan. Not. in Cæs. Commentar. L. Gyraldus. Kirkmannus.

4 XII.Tabul. part i. de Jure Sacro. "Hominem mortuum in urbe ne sepelito, neve urito," tom. 2. "Rogum ascia ne polito,"

CHAP. I. the funeral fire with planed wood, or quenching

the fire with wine), Manlius the consul burnt

the body of his son: Numa, by special clause of his will, was not burnt but buried; and Remus was solemnly burnt, according to the description of Ovid1.

[7] Cornelius Sylla was not the first whose body was burned in Rome, but of the Cornelian family; which, being indifferently, not frequently used before, from that time spread, and became the prevalent practice. Not totally pursued in the highest run of cremation; for when even crows were funerally burnt, Poppea the wife of Nero found a peculiar grave interment. Now as all customs were founded upon some bottom of reason, so there wanted not grounds for this; according to several apprehensions of the most Opinions of rational dissolution. Some being of the opinion 6 of Thales, that water was the original of all things, thought it most equal to submit unto the principle of putrefaction, and conclude in a moist relentment. Others conceived it most natural to end in fire, as due unto the master principle in the composition, according to the doctrine of Heraclitus; and therefore heaped up large piles, more actively to waft them toward that element, whereby they also declined a visible degeneration into worms, and left a lasting parcel of their composition.

Thales and

Heraclitus.

tom. 4. Item Vigeneri Annotat. in Livium, et Alex. ab Alex. [Genial. Dies], cum Tiraquello. Rosinus cum Demp

stero.

"Ultima prolato subdita flamma rogo."-Fast. lib. iv. 1. 856, cum Car. Neapol. Anaptyxi.

Some apprehended a purifying virtue in fire, CHAP. I. refining the grosser commixture, and firing out [S] the æthereal particles so deeply immersed in it. And such as by tradition or rational conjecture held any hint of the final pyre of all things, or that this element at last must be too hard for all the rest, might conceive most naturally of the fiery dissolution. Others pretending no natural grounds, politickly declined the malice of enemies upon their buried bodies. Which consideration led Sylla unto this practice; who having thus served the body of Marius, could 7 not but fear a retaliation upon his own; entertained after in the civil wars, and revengeful contentions of Rome.

the Brah

But, as many nations embraced, and many [9] left it indifferent, so others too much affected, Practice of or strictly declined this practice. The Indian mins. Brachmans seemed too great friends unto fire, who burnt themselves alive, and thought it the noblest way to end their days in fire; according to the expression of the Indian, burning himself at Athens1, in his last words upon the pyre unto the amazed spectators, “Thus I make my self immortal."

But the Chaldeans, the great idolaters of fire, [10] abhorred the burning of their carcases, as a pol- Burning de clined by the lution of that deity. The Persian magi declined Chaldeans it upon the like scruple, and being only solicitous and Persians. about their bones, exposed their flesh to the prey of birds and dogs. And the Parsees now

1 And therefore the inscription of his tomb was made accordingly.-Nic. Damasc,

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