SYLVA 235 



shields and bucklers, and other warlike harness, 'till 

 in process of time, it had cover'd them with success- 

 ive coats of bark and timber, as it was afterwards 

 found, when Pericles sack'd the city ; which the 

 oracle predicted should be impregnable, 'till a tree 

 should bring forth l armour. We have already 

 mention'd Rebekah, and read of kings themselves 

 that honoured such places with their sepulchres : 

 What else should be the meaning of i Chro. 10. 12. 

 when the valiant men of Jabesh interr'd the bones of 

 Saul and Jonathan under the oak ? Famous was the 

 Hymethian coemeterie where Daiphron lay: Ariadne's 

 tomb was in the Amathusian grove in Crete, now 

 Candie ; for they believed that the spirits and ghosts 

 of men delighted to expatiate, and appear in such 

 solemn places, as the learned Grotius notes from 

 Theophylact, speaking of the daemons, upon Mat. 8. 

 20; for which cause Plato gave permission, that trees 

 might be planted over graves, to obumbrate and 

 refresh them : The most ancient conditoria and burying- 

 places, were in such nemorous solitudes : The Hypo- 

 gaeum in Macpela, purchas'd by the patriarch 

 Abraham of the sons of Heth, Gen. XXIII. for Sarah, 

 his own dormitory, and family's sepulchre ; was 

 convey 'd to him, with particular mention, ver. 3. of 

 all the trees and groves about it ; and the very first 

 precedent I ever read, of conveying a purchase by a 

 formal deed. 



Our Blessed Saviour, (as we shall shew) chose the 

 garden sometimes for his oratory, and dying, for the 

 place of his sepulchre ; and we do avouch for many 

 weighty causes, that there are none more fit to bury 

 our dead in, than in our gardens and groves, or airy 



1 Diodor. Sic. lib. 12. 



