(4.) Living and dying we should make profession of our faith. Joseph, when he died, would be known to be an Israelite^ and not an Egyptian.
(5.) We may gather hence that it is fit the saints, where it may be had, should have decent burial. It is made a work, not only of honesty, but piety : Acts viii. 2, ' Devout men carried Stephen to his burial ; ' so 2 Sam. ii. 5, 6, 'Blessed be ye of the Lord, who have showed this kindness unto your lord, even to Saul, and have buried him. And now the Lord show kindness unto you.' And it is mentioned as great impiety in the enemies : Ps. Ixxix. 2, 8, ' The dead bodies of thy servants they have given to be meat for the fowls of heaven, the flesh of the saints unto the beasts of the earth. Tlieir blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury them.' And it is a curse : Ps. Ixiii. 10, ' They shall fall by the sword, they shall be a portion for foxes.' So that it is agreeable to the word of God that there should be such burials.
1st. It is agreeable to the sentence pronounced against sinners : Gen. iii. 19, ' Dust thou art, and to dust shalt thou return.' We bury the
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dead to show that we are not forgetful what we were by nature ; it is a confession of the curse due to sin.
2dly, It is agreeable to our hope of the resurrection. We do not cast away then- bones and remains, but lay them up ; not as we do the carcases of beasts, but as we sow wheat in the ground, that it may rise again with increase. They do but 'rest in their beds,' Isa. Ivii. 2. They are but KotfxrjT'^pia, sleep uig-places.
3dli/, It is agreeable to the honour God hath put upon the bodies of his saints. They are parts of Christ's purchase, 1 Uor. vi. 20. And Christ hath a charge to lose nothing, John vi. 39, ' But to raise them up at the last day.' And they are temples of the Holy Ghost, dedicated to him in covenant, and members of Christ.
■ithly, It is agreeable to the love we bear to them. Joseph of Ariraathea showed his love to Christ in burying him ; and the men of Jabesh Gilead showed their love to Saul. It is the last office we can do them, to lay them up safe.
5tMy, Well then, funerals are lawful, if lawfully used. Not supersti- tiously by confining God to places, or as if it did good to patter words over the dead, or to bury in consecrated places — ' the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.' God knoweth where to fetch our substance again, wherever our remains are cast. Not pompously, this is to sin after death, to continue the monuments of our pride when we can sin no longer. Not in a dead carnal manner ; too often it falleth out that the dead bury their dead, the dead in heart bury the dead in body. There are funeral and grave thoughts. It is a monument of the fruit of sin ; the full power of it remaineth over the wicked, and the grave to them is a prison. We should have humbling thoughts, that dust we are, and to dust we shall return ; and we should have believing thoughts, we have our friends in the grave ; but God doth not leave them, he taketh care of the bones of the saints. The grave is now opened with difficulty, but afterwards with ease, and all that are in it shall come forth. The dust of bodies is now mingled together, but God will soon sever them, and give to every man his own body. And we should have mortifying thoughts, we are all hastening this way ; as a candle, as soon as it is lighted, decreaseth. Our bodies will soon be loathsome carcases. They that are dear before, within a little while will become loathsome and intolerable : Gen. xxiii. 4, ' Give me a possession of a buryiug-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.' Their best friends would fain be rid of them. How soon is the glory of flesh stained, and turned into a stink and rottenness '
GiJily, There is faith shown in disposing of our bones. So did Joseph, so should we look upon the grave as sanctified by Christ ; the waters of baptism he sanctified in his own person. And so for the grave, Christ hath been there ; to him it was not a prison, but a bed : Isa. liii. 9, ' He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death.' Now the jaws of it are broken, that you cannot be holden of it. These bones shall be clothed with skin and flesh. Christ is the guardian of the grave : John vi. 39, ' Of all that he hath given me I shall lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day.' He hath a
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