Sepulture

Tacit. Annal. c. 5.SEPULTURE, or Burial. The Hebrews, as is said, were always very careful about the Burial of their Dead. To be deprived of Burial, according to them, was one of the greatest Misfortunes that could happen to a Man. They did not refuse to pay this Duty to any one, not even to their Enemies. But it was not perform’d to such as had laid violent Hands upon themselves, a till after the Sun was set; and they believed that their Souls were plunged into Hell. This great Care about Sepulture proceeded from their full Persuasion of the Immortality of the Soul. The Scripture threatens the Wicked, that they should be deprived of Sepulture, as one of the greatest Calamities that can be inflicted on them. Altho’ a Man should live a long Time, and should have an hundred Children; yet when he dies, if he should be deprived of the Honour of Burial, I maintain, says the Ecclef. vi. 3. Jer. viii. 2.Wiseman, that he would be no better than an Abortion. Jeremiah threatens the Kings, Priests, and false Prophets, who have worshipp’d Idols, that their Bones should be cast out of their Graves as the Dung of the Earth. The same Prophet foretells, that Jehoiakim, King of Judah, Jer. xxii. 18, 19.who built up his House in Iniquity, who deliver’d up himself to all sorts of criminal Actions, to Avarice and Violence; he tells him, he should be buried with the Burial of Asses; Sepulturâ asini sepelietur; That he should be cast out of the Gates of Jerusaleem to the Fowls of the Air. It is observable, that Jason, who had hindred 2 Macc. v. 10.many Jews of the Honour of Sepulture, was himself treated after the same manner. He dy’d in a strange Country, and was thrown out like Carrion into the Fields, without so much as being put into a strange Grave. Sepulturâ negne peregrinâ usus. Good Men made it a Part of their Piety and Devotion to bury the Dead, as may be seen by the Example of Tobit. See SEPULCHRE, and our Dissertation upon the Funerals of the Hebrews, printed before the Book of Ecclesiasticus; and the Book of John Nicolai, De Sepulchris Hebræorum, and what we have already said upon the Article of the DEAD.

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