1803. | 
ed? But their importance and utility can- 
not be denied. It is not, perhaps, defir- 
able to fee men of the firft genius fhooting 
with this bow, becaufe their finews are 
formed for eflays, more pleafing and illuf- 
trious. But the fcope of the antiquary is 
ftill wide andlarge. ‘To his patient toiland 
plodding perfeverance the chronologitt, 
the biographer, the hiftorian, and the poet, 
ftand eminently indebted ; and works the 
moftt fplendid in form, and which are con- 
ftructed for the admiration of pofterity, 
rife out of ordinary documents, and re- 
fearches which may appear unpromifing 
or trifling. Who can calculate on the 
the confequences of a fingle date fome- 
times to an individual, fometimes to a ta- 
mily, and fometimes even to the public ? 
Kees oyseoior omndet. 
Monuments and their in{criptions, con- 
fidered in another point of view, as effoits 
of expiring mortality, which fighs for a 
little remembrance beyond the grave, or as 
tributes of furviving relatives and friends, 
who !abour to preferve a name which they 
with not to be quite obliterated, do but fa- 
vour a with natural to the human heart, 
a defire incident to the beftand pureft part 
of our 'pecies. Under the greateft debi- 
Iity of his frame, and amidit even a wea- 
riiomenefs of exiftence, man fiill fee!s the 
tendcr and endearing tie of life, and is 
folicitous not to be forgotten: and he who 
preferves a monument from mouldering 
to ruins, who recorc’s a name, or who ref- 
cues an infcription that is nearly effaced, 
humours a darling propenfity, the univer- 
fal paffion ; and he is entitled, in his turn, 
not to be overlooked as a trifler, or as a 
labourer about nothing ;—opero/e xibil 
agendo: 
‘¢ For who to dumb forgetfulnefs a prey, 
This pleafing, anxious being e’er refign’d ? 
Left the warm precinéts of the chearful day, 
Nor caft one longing, ling’ring look be- 
hind ? ‘ 
** On fome fond breaft the parting foul relies, 
Some pious drops the clofing eye requires 5 
Ev’n from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, 
Ev’n in our athes live their wonted fires.” 
H.R. 
; a 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SiR, 
WO refpe&able. Correfpondents, in 
fh ele laft Magazine, (pages 4:9, 429) 
have very properiy cenfured and expofed 
the indecency, andeven danger, of bury- 
ing in churches and in towns. In addi- 
tion to their remarks and anecdotes, allow 
a p'ace, if you can, to an -extradt from a 
Bifvop Fiall on burying in Churches. 
27 
very {carce difcourfe, by that learned and 
eminently pious prelate, Jofeph Hail, 
preached at Exeter, Auguft 24, 1637, on 
the confecration of anew burial place. The 
text, which is very applicable, and adimi- 
rably elucidated, is Gen. xxiii. 19, 20 :-— 
** And atter this Abraham buried Sarah 
his wife in the cave of the field of Mach- 
pelah, before Mamre, the fame is Hebron 
in the land of Canaan. And tne field, 
and the cave that is therein, were made 
fure to Abraham for a pofleffioh of atbury- 
ing-place by the fons of Heth.” ' 
After making feveral pertinent obfer- 
vations on the fubject, the excellent Bifhop 
fays: ‘* Hitherto that there muft be a 
meet place, a place fixed and dehgned for 
the burial of the dead ; now let us a little 
look into the choice of the place ; it was 
a field, anda cave in that field; a field, 
not /ub teéio, but fub dio; a field before 
Mamre, a city that took its name from 
the owner, Abraham’s affiftant in his: 
war; before it, not in it: and indeed 
both thefe are fit and exemplary} it was 
the ancienteft and bett way that lepultures 
fhould be without the gates of the city ; 
hence you find that our Saviour met the 
bier of the widdowe’s fon, as he wascar- 
ried out of ihe gates of Nain to his bu- 
riall ; and hence of old was wont to be 
that proclamation of the Roman funeralls, 
ollus ecjertur foras. And we find that 
Jofeph of Arimathea had his private bu- 
riall-place in his garden, without the city, 
(for it was near to Calvarie) and fo was 
Lazarus his fepulchre without Bethany :. 
our Saviour fiaid in the field, till the fif- 
ters came forth to him, and the neigh- 
bours came forth after them; fo they 
went together to the fepuichre. And 
certainly much might be faid to this pur- 
pole for the convenience of out-funerals, 
without refpeét of thole Jewith grounds, 
who held a kind of impurity in the corpfes 
of the dead ; but that which mighi be faid, 
is rather out of matter of wholefomnedffe 
and civill confiderations, than out of the 
grounis of theology. Intime, this rite 
of buriall did fo creep within the walls, 
that ic infinuated itfelf into churches, yea, 
into the Holy of Holies, quires, and chan- 
cells, near unto the holy table, God's 
evangelical altar; but I mult tell you, 
this cuore ath -found entertainment 
only in the Weltern churches, that is, 
thote that were of corref;,ondence with the 
Roman ; for the Grcek Church allows no 
fuca practice, and the Roman at firit ad- 
mitted it very {paringly, fo as (olim epif- 
copi & alii principes fepeltebantur in eccle- 
Jia) none but princes and bifhops (as Mar- 
E 2 tus, 
