Nemo me lacrymis decoret nec funera fletu. Faxit: cur? volito vivu' per ora virum. Ennius. Πέρσας μέντοι πάντας ἐπὶ τὸ μνῆμα τὸ μὲν παρακαλείτε, συνηθησομένες ἐμοὶ, ὅτι ἐν τῷ ἀσφαλεῖ ἤδη ἔσομαι, ὡς μητ δὲν ἂν ἔτι κακὸν παθεῖν, μήτε ἣν μετ τὰ τῇ θείς γένωμαι, μήτε ἢν μηδὲν ἔτι ὦ. Cyrus apud Xenoph. lîb. s. c. 47. and it is an ill Expreffion of our Affection and our Charity, to weep uncomfortably at a change that hath carried my Friend to the ftate of a huge Felicity. But if the Man did perif in his Folly and his Sins, there is indeed caufe to mourn, but no hopes of being comforted; for he fhall never return to light, or to hopes of reftitution. Therefore beware. left thou also come into the fame Place of Torment ; and let thy Grief fit down and reft upon thy own Turf, and weep till a Shower fprings from thy Eyes to heal the Wounds of thy Spirit; turn thy Sorrow into Caution, thy Grief for him that is dead, to thy Care for thy felf who art alive: Left thou die, and fall like one of the Fools, whofe Life is worfe than Death, and their Death is the Confummation of all Felicities. *The Church in hers. Chryfoft. Funerals of the Dead ufed to fing Pfalms, and to give Hom. 4. Heb. Thanks for the redemption and delivery of the Soul from the evils and dangers of Mortality. And therefore we have no reason to be angry when God hears our Prayers, who call upon him to haften his coming, and to fill up his Numbers, and to do that which we pretend to give him Thanks for. And S. Chryfoftom asks, To what purpose is it that thou fingeft, Return unto thy Reft, O my Soul? &c. if thou doft not believe thy Пrev Friend to be in Reft; and if thou doft, why doft thou weep impertinently and unreafonably? Nothing but our own Lofs can juftly be deplored: And him that is paffionate for the lofs of his Money or his Advantages, we esteem foolish and imperfect; and therefore have no reason to love the immoderate Sorrows of those who too earnestly mourn for their Dead, when, in the laft Refolution of the Enquiry, it is their own Evil and prefent or feared Inconveniences they deplore: The beft that can be faid of fuch a Grief is, that those Mourners love them felves too well. Something is to be given to Cuftom, fomething to Fame, to Nature, and to Civilities, and to the Honour of the deceased Friends; R 4 ní, & eas θανόντων. ... 9. Friends; for that Man is esteemed to die miserable, for Mors optima eft, perire dum lacrymant fui. Sen. Hippol. whom no Friend or Relative fheds a Tear, or pays a folemn Sigh. I defire to die a dry Death, but am not very defirous to have a dry Funeral: Some Flowers fprinkled upon my Grave would do well and comely; and a foft Shower to turn thofe Flowers into a fpringing Memory or a fair Rehearful, that I may not go forth of my Doors as my Servants carry the Entrails of Beafts. But that which is to be faulted in this Particular, is, when the Grief is immoderate and unreasonable: And Paula Romana deferved to have felt the weight of S. Hierom's fevere Reproof, when at the death of every of her Children the almoft wept her felf into her Grave. But it is worfe yet, when People by an ambitious and a pompous Sorrow, and by Ceremonies invented for the oftentation of their Grief, fill Heaven and Earth with b Exclamations, Expectavimus lacrymas ad oftentationem doloris paratas: ut ergo ambitiofus detonuit. texit fuperbum pallio caput & manibus inter fe ufq; ad articulorum ftrepitum contritis, &c. Betron. b Ὡς ο πατὴς, & παιδὸς ὀδύρε) ὅσια καίων Νυμφίο, ὅτε θανών δειλός ακάχησε τοκλας" Ως ̓Αχιλεὺς ἑτάροιο οδύρετο όσες καίων, Ερπύζων παρά πυρκαί, αδινὰ συναχίζων. Iliad. 223. and grow troublesome becaufe their Friend is happy, or themselves want his Company. It is certainly a fad thing in Nature,to fee a Friend trem bling with a Palfy, or fcorched with Fevers, or dried Non Sicula up like a Potfheard with immoderate Heats, and rowling dapes dul- upon his uneafy Bed without Sleep, which cannot be cem elabo invited with Mufick, or pleasant Murmurs, or a decent rabunt fa- Stilnefs: nothing but the Servants of cold Death, Poppy porem, non and Weariness, can tempt the Eyes to let their Curtains tharæque down; and then they fleep only to tafte of Death, cantus fom- and make an Effay of the Shades below: And yet we weep not here, the period and opportunity for Tears we chufe when our Friend is fallen afleep, when he hath laid his Neck upon the Lap of his Mother and avium ci num redu cent. Hor. Od. 1. 1. 3. -Tremulúmque caput defcendere juffit let his Head down to be raised up to Heaven. This Grief is ill placed and and undecent. But many times it is worfe: And it hath been obferved, that thofe greater and ftormy Paffions do fo spend the whole ftock of Grief, that they prefently admit a Comfort and contrary Affection; while a Sorrow that is even and temperate goes on to its Period with expectation and the diftances of a just time. The Ephefian-Woman that the Soldier told of in Petronius, was the talk of all the Town, and the rarest Example of a dear Affection to her Husband: She defcended with the Corps into the Vault, and there being attended with her Maiden, refolved to weep to Death, or die with Famine or a distemper'd Sorrow: From which Refolution not his nor her Friends, nor the Reverence of the principal Citizens, who ufed the Intreaties of their Charity and their Power, could perfuade her. But a Soldier that watched Seven dead Bodies hanging upon Trees juft over-against this Monument, crept in, and a while ftared upon the filent and comely diforders of the Sorrow; and having let the Wonder a while breathe out at each other's Eyes, at last he fetched his Supper and a Bottle of Wine, with purpofe to eat and 'drink, and still to feed himself with that fad Prettiness. His Pity and first draught of Wine made him bold, and curious to try if the Maid wou'd drink: Who, having many Hours fince felt her Refolution faint as her wearied Body, took his Kindness; and the Light returned into her Eyes, and danced like Boys in a Festival: And fearing left the pertinacioufnefs of her Miftrefs's Sorrows fhou'd caufe her Evil to revert, or her Shame to approach, affayed whether the wou'd endure to hear an Argument to perfuade her to drink and live. The violent Paflion had laid all her Spirits in Wildness and Diffolution, and the Maid found them willing to be gathered into Order at the arreft of any new Object, being weary of the firft, of which like Leeches they had fucked their fill till they fell down and burst. The weeping Woman took her Cordial, and was not angry with her maid, and heard the Soldier talk. And he was fo pleafed with the Change, that he, who first lov'd the Silence of the Sorrow, was more in love with the Musick of her returning Voice, efpecially which himself had ftrung and put in Tune: And the Man began to talk amorously, and the Woman's weak Head and Heart was foon poffeffed with a little Wine, and grew gay, and talked, and fell in Love; and that very Night in the Morning of her Paffion, in the Grave of her Husband, in the Pomps of Mourning, and in her Funeral Garments, married her new and ftranger-Gueft. For fo the wild Foragers of Libya being spent with Heat, and diffolved by the too fond kiffes of the Sun, do melt with their common Fires, and die with Faintnefs, and defcend, with Motions flow, and unable, to the little Brooks that defcend from Heaven in the Wildernefs: And when they drink they return into the vigour of a new Life, and contract ftrange Marriages; and the Lionefs is courted by a Panther, and she Jiftens to his Love, and conceives a Monster that all Men call unnatural and the Daughter of an equivocal Paffion, and of a fudden Refreshment. And fo alfo was it in the Cave at Ephesus; for by this time the Soldier began to think it was fit he fhould return to his Watch and obferve the dead Bodies he had in Charge: But when he afcended from his mourning bridal Chamber, he found that one of the Bodies was ftolen by the Friends of the dead, and that he was fallen into an evil Condition, becaufe by the Laws of Ephefus, his Body was to be fixed in the place of it. The poor Man returns to his Woman, cries out bitterly, and in her Prefence refolves to die to prevent his Death, and in Secret to prevent his Shame. But now the Woman's Love was raging like her former Sadnefs, and grew witty, and the conforted her Soldier, and perfuaded him to live, left by lofing him who had brought her from Death and a more grievous Sorrow, the fhould return to her old Solemnities of dying, and lofe her Honour for a Dream, or the Reputation of her Conftancy, without the change and fatisfaction of an enjoied Love. The Man would fain have lived, if it had been poffible, and fhe found out this way for him; That he fhould take the Body of her firft Hufband, whofe Funeral fhe had fo ftrangely mourned, and put it upon the Gallows in the Place of the ftoln ftoln Thief. He did fo, and escaped the prefent Danger, to poffefs a Love which might change as violently as her Grief had done. But fo have I feen a Crowd of difordered People rufh violently and in Heaps, till their utmost Border was reftrained by a Wall, or had spent the fury of the firft fluctuation and watry progrefs, and by and by it returned to the contrary with the fame Earneftnefs, only because it was violent and ungoverned. A raging Paffion is this Crowd, which, when it is not under difcipline and the conduct of Reason, and the proportions of temperate Humanity, runs paffionately the way it happens, and by and by as greedily to another Side, being fwayed by its own Weight, and driven any whither by Chance, in all its Purfuits having no Rule, but to do all it can, and fpend it felf in hafte, and expire with fome Shame and much Undecency. When thou haft wept a while, compofe the Body to Burial: Which, that it be done gravely, decently and charitably, we have the Example of all Nations to engage us, and of all Ages of the World to warrant: fo that it is against common Honesty, and publick Fame and Reputation, not to do this Office. It is good that the Body be kept veiled and fecret, and not expofed to curious Eyes, or the Dishonours wrought by the changes of Death difcerned and stared upon by impertinent Perfons. When Cyrus was dying, he called his Sons and Friends to take their Leave, to touch his Hand, to fee him the last time, and gave in Charge, that when he had put his Veil over his Face no Man fhould uncover it. And Epiphanius his Body was refcued from inquifitive Eyes by a Miracle. Let it be interred after the (*) manner of the Country, and the Laws of the Place, and the Dignity of the Perfon. For fo Jacob was buried with great Solemnity, and yoJeph's Bones were carried into Cannan, after they had been embalmed and kept Four Hundred Years; and devout Men carried S. Stephen to his Burial, making great Lamentation over him. And Elian tells, that thofe (*) Νόμοις επεθς τοῖσιν ἐν χώροις καλῶς. Τύμβον δ' ε μάλα πολλὸν ἐγὼ πονέες Arλ' 'Omeinén Tobov. (žvaza, Iliad... 245. who |