A Critical and Practical Elucidation of the Book of Common Prayer (Volume 2); And Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1817 edition. Excerpt: ... THE ORDER FOR THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD. WHOEVER is in any degree conversant with the writings of antiquity, whether sacred or profane, re quires not to be informed, that the most ancient nations, with whose history we are acquainted, have in general regarded the decent disposal of the bodies of the dead, both as a civil duty and a religious rite. The Book of Genesis notices the funerals of Sarah, and of Abraham +, of Isaac J, and of Jacob, toge? ther with the particular care of the nearest surviving relatives to perform what has been considered the last and greatest office of piety jj. Even by the heathens the burial of the dead was esteemed a di vine institution, and a law of the immortal gods f and they who performed this office were reckoned f Gen. xxiii. f lb. xxv. % lb. xxxv. $ lb. 1. 11 LactanU Instit. % Eurip, and Sophoc. justq justa facere, to do what piety ond justice required, to discharge the debt of common humanity . David blesses the men of Jabesh-Gilead, for having buried the body of Saul, and the bodies of his sons f; and the Psalmist, who wrote after the building of the temple, execrates those, who had left the bodies of the faithful unburied, and exposed to birds, and beasts of prey J. Our Saviour calls the funeral preparation made by a devout woman, a good work wrought upon himself; and declared, that wherever the Gospel should be preached, what she had done should be told for a memorial of her . It was not uncommon for the earlier Christians to carry on, even at the hazard of their lives, the bodies of the Martyrs, which the barbarity of their persecutors had left uninterred. To refuse the usual rites of sepulture, was by Jews, Christians, and Pagans, esteemed dishonourable to the...