The Christian disputations, by Master Peter Viret. Divided into three parts, dialogue wiseThe Christian disputations, by Master Peter Viret. Deuided into three partes, dialogue wise

For although ¹that the Gospel of Jesus Christ doth correct and mortify the wicked affections of the flesh, yet nevertheless it depriveth nor spoileth man from all human affection, but amendeth only that which is vicious, through the natural corruption, proceeding from the sin of man. It is impossible that we can be without dolour & sorrow, although we would, when we do see the afflictions and miseries of our brethren, ⟨image 74⟩being of our flesh and blood, The holy Scripture hath not condemned the sorrow and heaviness that Abraham conceived ²for the death of Sarah his wife, & Isaac of his mother, Joseph of his father Jacob: The Disciples of S. John, & of Jesus Christ, & of s. Steven, & of s. James, of the tears ye they have shed & of the sorrow that they made: For man cannot be man, without being moved to pity and compassion, seeing the calamities of others, & feeling the damage that he himself receiveth. Therefore S. Paul speaketh very sharply, when ³he said, that the faithful should not be sorrowful as the Paynims and Infidels, who have no hope of the resurrection. Sith then that he condemneth the doings of the Paynims, we ought not to keep them, except we would be rather counted Paynims then Christians. It ought then to suffice us to bury honestly the bodies of the dead, and to put them in the earth as in their bed, tarrying and looking for the coming of Jesus Christ, and the general resurrection of all flesh. Therefore the Christians do call the place that is appointed for their burial Cimiterium, because that it is as the bed, couch and dortoire of the faithful that be ⁴dead. And therefore it is good to have some certain honest and comely place, as a common repository of the Christians, ⁵and public witness of the resurrection of the flesh. For we should do great wrong unto our bodies which are the temple of God, in whom God dwelleth, and which have been consecrated and made holy through the blood of Jesus Christ unto his honour and glory, and dedicated unto the immortal inheritage of his kingdom, if we do cast them to dogs, fowls and wild beasts, as she carrion of wild and brute beasts, as though they should live no more after they were dead, and be no partaker of the immortality, no more then beasts. Their bodies ought to be more deer unto us, and more joined and knit unto us then their apparel, as Basil witnesseth.