Volume 1

The works of Sir Thomas Browne / edited by Simon Wilkin.

  • Thomas Browne
Date:
1890-1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The works of Sir Thomas Browne / edited by Simon Wilkin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    24/608 page 12
    pyre of Asa. And were so little averse from Pagan burn- ing, that the Jews lamenting the death of Cajsar their friend, and revenger on Pompey, frequented the place where his body was burnt for many nights togetlier.* And as they raised noble monuments and mausoleums for their own nation,t so they were not scrupulous in erecting some for others, according to the practice of Daniel, who left that lasting sepulchral pile in Ecbatana, for the Median and Persian kings. J But even in times of subjection and hottest use, they conformed not unto the lloman practice of burning; whereby the prophecy was secured concerning the body of Christ, that it should not see corruption, or a bone should not be broken; which we believe was also pro^'identially prevented, from the soldier's spear and nails that passed by the little bones both in his hands and feet; not of ordinary contrivance, that it should not corru])t on the cross, accord- ing to the laws of Roman crucifixion, or an hair of his head perish, though observable in Jewish customs, to cut the hairs of malefactors. Nor in their long cohabitation with Egyptians, crept into a custom of their exact embalming, wherein deeply slashing the muscles, and taking out the brains and entrails, they had broken the subject of so entire a resurrection, nor fuUy answered the types of Enoch, Elijah, or Jonah, which yet to prevent or restore, was of equal facility unto that rising power, able to break the fasciations and bands of death, to get clear out of the cerecloth, and an hundred pounds of ointment, and out of the sepulchre before the stone was rolled from it. But though they embraced not this practice of burning, yet entertained they many ceremonies agreeable unto Grreek and Roman obsequies. And he that observeth their funeral feasts, their lamentations at the grave, their music, and weeping mourners ; how they closed the eyes of their friends, how they washed, anointed, and kissed the dead; may easily * Sueton. in vita Jul. Cces. t As that magnificent sepulchral monument erected by Simon, 1 Mace. xiii. ■ X KaTaiTK(va(Tfia Bavfianiwg -rmroiTtiifvov, •whereof a Jewish priest had always the custody, unto Josephus his days.—Jos. Antiq. lib. x.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3