On Burial & Funerals

“And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father’s house…  And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a very great company…  and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.”

Gen. 50:7-10

 “Then when Jesus came, He found that he had lain in the grave four days already…  Jesus saith unto her, ‘Thy brother shall rise again.’…  When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled…  Jesus wept…  He cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth.’  And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes…”

Jn. 11:17-44

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Subsection

Mourning & Bereavement
Christ’s Burial

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Order of Contents

Corpse  2
Burial  4
Funerals  2
Funeral Addresses  3
Latin  4


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On the Corpse

Westminster

LC Q. 86. “What is the communion in glory with Christ, which the members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after death?

A. The communion in glory with Christ, which the members of the invisible church enjoy immediately after death, is, in that their souls are then made perfect in holiness,[l] and received into the highest heavens,[m] where they behold the face of God in light and glory,[n] waiting for the full redemption of their bodies,[o] which even in death continue united to Christ,[p] and rest in their graves as in their beds,[q] till at the last day they be again united to their souls.[r] Whereas the souls of the wicked are at their death cast into hell, where they remain in torments and utter darkness, and their bodies kept in their graves, as in their prisons, till the resurrection and judgment of the great day.[s]

[l] Heb. 12:23.
[m] 2 Cor. 5:1,6,8Phil. 1:23 compared with Acts 3:21 and with Eph. 4:10.
[n] 1 John 3:21 Cor. 13:12.
[o] Rom. 8:23Ps. 16:9.
[p] 1 Thess. 4:14.
[q] Isa. 57:2.
[r] Job 19:26,27.
[s] Luke 16:23,24Acts 1:25Jude 6,7.”

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Latin Articles

Voet, Gisbert – Syllabus of Theological Problems  (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 2, tract 6   Abbr.

1. Of the Intermediate State of the Body in General, or of the Cadaver  (Before & After the Whole Dissolution of it)

2. On the State of the Body in Specific  (Of the Blessed & Damned)


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On Burial

1500’s

Bullinger, Henry – 10th Sermon, ‘Of Certain Institutions of the Church of God…  what the Church of Christ determines concerning the sick; and of funerals and burials’  in The Decades  ed. Thomas Harding  (Cambridge: Parker Society, 1850), vol. 4, 5th Decade, pp. 478-526

Vermigli, Peter Martyr – ‘Of Burial’  in The Common Places…  (d. 1562; London: Henrie Denham et al., 1583), pt. 3, ch. 14, ‘Of Death, & of the Consolation of the Godly against the Same’, pp. 319-23

Viret, Pierre – Dialogue 2, ‘The Office of the Dead’  in The Christian Disputations…  Dialogue-wise  tr. John Brooke  (d. 1571; London: East, 1579), pp. 61-107  Index

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1900’s

Boettner, Loraine – ‘Burial or Cremation?’  in Immortality  (1956), pp. 50-55


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On Funerals

1500’s

Articles

Bullinger, Henry – 10th Sermon, ‘Of Certain Institutions of the Church of God…  what the Church of Christ determines concerning the sick; and of funerals and burials’  in The Decades  ed. Thomas Harding  (Cambridge: Parker Society, 1850), vol. 4, 5th Decade, pp. 478-526

Viret, Pierre – Dialogue 2, ‘The Office of the Dead’  in The Christian Disputations…  Dialogue-wise  tr. John Brooke  (d. 1571; London: East, 1579), pp. 61-107  Index


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Funeral Addresses

1800’s

Hodge, Charles

Funeral Address for Cortlandt Van Rennselaer  (1860)  10 pp.

Funeral Sermon for the Rev. Jacob J. Janeway, D.D., 2 Tim. 4:7,8  (n.d.)  20 pp.

“He Preached Christ”, Acts 9:20, Sermon Preached… at the Memorial Services… [for] James Waddel Alexander, D.D.  (1859)  17 pp.


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Latin Articles

1600’s

Voet, Gisbert

Syllabus of Theological Problems  (Utrecht, 1643), pt. 1, section 2, tract 6  Abbr.

Appendices:

(1) On Mourning for the Dead
(2) On Honoring the Dead & of Burial

Ecclesiastical Politics  (Amsterdam: Waesberge, 1663), vol. 2, pt. 1, bk. 3, tract 2, On the Funeral, or the Burial of the Dead

1. Containing a Three-part Disputation on Burial, with Additions to Them 216

A Gleaning Going Before the Disputations on Burial [with End-Notes]  258

Appendix:  Chronicles on Burial  286

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“…the day of death [is better] than the day of one’s birth.  It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.  Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.  The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

Eccl. 7:1-4

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Related Pages

Death

The Judgment

Heaven

Bible Verses: Degrees of Reward in Heaven

Glorification

Beatific Vision

Hell

Bible Verses on Degrees of Punishment in Hell

On the Renovation, New Heavens & Earth & Believers’ Eternal Home

On Eternal Life