mift, *Thou art GOD from Everlafting, and World without End; Thou turneft Man to Deftruction; again, Thou fayeft, Come again ye Children of Men. For a thousand Years in thy Sight are but as Yesterday, feeing that is past as a Watch in the Night. As foon as thou scattereft them, they are even as a Sleep, and fade away fuddenly like the Grass. In the Morning it is green and groweth up, but in the Evening it is cut down, dried up and withered. Do thou therefore, O LORD, † let me know my End, and the Number of my Days, how long I have to live. my Days, as it were a Span long, and mine Age is nothing in respect of Thee; and verily every Man living is altogether Vanity. And now, LORD, what is my Hope? Truly my Hope is even in Thee. Deliver me from all mine Offences, and O Spare me a little that I may recover my Strength, before I go hence and be no more feen. Such Thoughts as thefe of our Friend's, and of our own Mortality, would excite us to prepare for our own Change.

that I may be certified Behold thou haft made

And as this Form of Proceffion is an Emblem of our dying fhortly after our Friend, fo the carrying of Ivy, or Laurel, or Rosemary, or fome of thofe Ever-Greens, is an Emblem of the Soul's Immortality. It is as much as

* Pfal. XC. + Pfal. xxxix.

to

to fay, That though the Body be dead, yet the Soul is Ever-Green and always in Life: It is not like the Body, and those other Greens which die and revive again at their proper Seafons, no Autumn nor Winter can make a Change in it, but it is unalterably the fame, perpetually in Life, and never dying.

The Romans, and other Heathens upon this Occafion, made Ufe of Cyprefs, which being once cut, will never flourish nor grow any more, as an Emblem of their dying for ever, and being no more in Life. But instead of that, the antient Christians used the Things before mentioned; they * laid them under the Corps in the Grave, to fignify, that they who die in CHRIST, do not ceafe to live. For though, as to the Body they die to the World, yet, as to their Souls, they live to GOD.

And as the carrying of these Ever-Greens is an Emblem of the Soul's Immortality, fo it is also of the Refurrection of the Body: For as thefe Herbs are not entirely pluck'd up, but only cut down, and will, at the returning Seafon, revive and fpring up again; fo the Body, like them, is but cut down for a while,

*Hedera quoque vel laurus & hujufmodi, quæ femper fervant virorem, in farchophago corpori fubfternuntur, ad fignificandum quod qui moriuntur in Chrifto, vivere nec definunt. Nam licet mundo moriantur fecundum corpus, tamen fecundum animam vivunt & revivifcunt Deo. Durand. Rit. Lib. 7. G. 35. de Offic. Mort.

and

and will rise and shoot up again at the Refurrection. For, as the Prophet Isaiah says, * Our Bones fhall flourish like an Herb.

It was customary † among the antient Jews, as they returned from the Grave, to pluck up the Grafs two or three Times, and then throw it behind them, faying these Words of the Pfalmift, They shall flourish out of the City like Grafs upon the Earth: Which they did, to fhew, that the Body, though dead, should spring up again as the Grafs. Thus by these two antient Ceremonies, we have placed before our Eyes, our Mortality and Immortality; the one speaks the Death of the Body, the other the Life of the Soul, nay, and the Life of the Body too; for like that Herb we carry, it is not quite pluck'd up, but shall one Day be alive again. When it hath laid in the Earth the Winter Season, the Continuance of this World, and the Warmth and Influence of the Spring is come, the joyful Spring of the Refurrection, 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.

* Ifa. lxiii. 14. + Greg. C. 26,

‡ Cor. i. 15.

There

There is another Cuftom ufed in fome Places, at the Proceffion of Funerals, which pays a due Honour to the Dead, and gives Comfort and Confolation to the Living; and that is, the carrying out the Dead with Pfalmody. This was an antient Custom of the Church; for in fome of the earliest Ages, they carried out their Dead to the Grave with finging of Pfalms, and Hymns. Thus Socrates tells us, That when the Body of Babylas the Martyr was removed by the Order of Julian the Apoftate, the Chriftians* with their Women and Children, rejoiced and fung Pfalms all the Way, as they bore the Corps from Dauphne to Antioch: Thus was † Paula buried at Bethlehem; thus did St. Anthony bury Paul the Hermite; and thus were the Generality of Men buried after the three first Centuries, when Perfecution ceafed. In Imitation of this, it is ftill customary in feveral Parts of this Nation, to carry out the Dead with finging of Pfalms and Hymns of Triumph; to fhew that they have ended their fpiritual Warfare, that they have finifhed their Courfe with Joy, and are become Conquerors; which furely is a Matter of no little Confolation for the loofing of our Friend. And how becoming is it to pay fuch

*Hoi kata, &c. Soc. Lib. 3. C. 17.-† Epitaphium Pauli. Hierom. Ep. 27 -Ibid, in Vit. Paul.

Honour

Honour to the Body! How is it imitating the bleffed Angels, who rejoyced at Meeting of the Soul, and carrying it to Heaven. For as they rejoyce at her Converfion on Earth, so most certainly they rejoyce at her going to Heaven. And as they rejoyce at the carrying of the Soul thither, fo 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 fin 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 or Relation, and this decent Ceremony is perform'd, let it alfo have a Share of our Thoughts, and excite in us Joy and Comfort, and Thanksgiving and Praife. And when these Customs are fo obferved, they will be of great Advantage to us, making us still fitter for the heavenly Life. And furely a Thing of this Good and Profit, is much to be preferr'd to what hath in it nothing but Undecency and Irreverence; fuch 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, fo in this; we must neither be too fad, nor D

too