blem of our dying shortly after our Friend, so the carrying of Ivy, or Laurel, or Rosemary, or some of those Ever-Greens, is an Emblem of the Soul's Immortality. It is as much as to say, 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 Seasons, no Autumn nor Winter can make a Change in it, but it is unalterably the same, perpetually in Life, and never dying.

The Romans, and other Heathens upon this Occasion, made Use of Cypress, 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 signify, that they who die in CHRIST, do not cease to live. For though, as to the Body they die to the World, yet, as to their Souls, they live to GOD.

* Hædera quoque vel laurus & hujusmodi, quæ semper servant virorem, in sarchophago corpori substernuntur, ad significandum quod qui moriuntur in Christo, vivere nec desinunt. Nam licet mundo moriantur secundum corpus, tamen secundum animam vivunt & reviviscunt Deo. Durand. Rit. Lib. 7. C. 35. de Offic. Mort.

And as the carrying of these Ever-Greens is an Emblem of the Soul's Immortality, so it is also of the Resurrection of the Body: For as these Herbs are not entirely pluck'd up, but only cut down, and will, at the returning Season, revive and spring up again; so the Body, like them, is but cut down for a while, and will rise and shoot up again at the Resurrection. For, as the Prophet Isaiah says, *Our Bones shall flourish like an Herb.

It was customary + among the ancient Jews, as they returned from the Grave, to pluck up the Grass two or three Times, and then throw it behind them, saying these Words of the Psalmist, They shall flourish out of the City like Grass upon the Earth: Which they did, to shew, that the Body, though Dead, should spring up again as the Grass. 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

* Isa. lxiii. 14.

1 Greg. C. 26.

World,

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

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 stiil 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 Course 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 merry 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.

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