“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 3
Funeral Addresses 3
Latin 4
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On the Corpse
Order of
Westminster 1
Latin 1
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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. 5:1,6,8. Phil. 1:23 compared with Acts 3:21 and with Eph. 4:10.
[n] 1 John 3:2. 1 Cor. 13:12.
[o] Rom. 8:23. Ps. 16:9.
[p] 1 Thess. 4:14.
[q] Isa. 57:2.
[r] Job 19:26,27.
[s] Luke 16:23,24. Acts 1:25. Jude 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
Articles
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
Order of Contents
Articles 2
Quotes 2
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Articles
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
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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Quotes
1600’s
English Puritans
A Refutation of the Errors of Separatists (1604; RBO, 2025), pt. 2, p. 251
“Concerning burials, we answer:
First, that many of our ministers are known to refuse the form of burial prescribed in the [Anglican] Book [of Common Prayer].
Secondly, that a Christian minister may (for the honor and seemliness of Christian burial) accompany, as a Christian, with the rest of the neighbors, the body of Christians departed unto the grave.¹
¹ This is very similar to the directions given in Westminster’s “Concerning Burial of the Dead” in the “Directory for the Publick Worship of God”.
Thirdly, if the minister use some few words of comfort and exhortation at that time, yea even in that form that the book prescribes, though it may prove inconvenient and offensive, yet is there no such impiety in that action that should make his ministry void or Antichristian.”
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Richard Baxter
The English Nonconformity as under King Charles II & King James II Truly Stated & Argued (1683; London: Parkhurst, 1689), pp. 11 & 15 The preface is dated 1683.
“But those [leading presbyterian and congregationalist ministers] that were called by the king, and one another, 1660 and 1661, to treat of concord, and that assembled at Sion College, and elsewhere about it, did openly make known their minds: And I think they meddled not against any of these things following, by any accusation of them as sinful:
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XXXV. We blame not the [Anglican] Liturgy for extending the words of charity and hope as far as there is any reasonable ground, in sacraments, absolution and burial.”
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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.
(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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