A discourse relating to the much-lamented death and solemn funeral of our incomparable and…

They were indeed anciently the most celebrated Mourners for such as died from amongst them, in all the World, in respect of their Funeral Rites, and of their Monuments for the Dead, of which they are said to ¹have taken more care than of the Habitations of the Living; accounting these they were to inhabit only a short time, but those they reckoned their [Greek or Hebrew], their eternal Habitations. An Imagination, which how wild soever it were of the Habitations of Souls, (which only could be supposed capable of being pleased with them) yet implied their Belief of their Immortality, whereof some have (groundlessly) thought them the ²first Assertors.

They were indeed antiently the most celebrated Mourners for such as died from amongst them, in all the World, in respect of their Funeral Rites, and of their Monuments for the Dead, of which they are said to ¹have taken more care than of the Habitations of the Living; accounting these they were to inhabit only a short time, but those they reckon'd their 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, their eternal Habitations. An Imagination, which how wild soever it were of the Habitations of Souls, (which only could be supposed capable of being pleased with them) yet imply'd their Belief of their Immortality, whereof some have (groundlesly) thought them the ²first Assertors.

1. 1Diod. Sic. l. 1.
2. 2Herod. Euterp.

But the Canaanites were, as was intimated, mistaken in apprehending that to be chiefly an Egyptian Mourning. The true Israelites (those that were such indeed) were the true, concerned Mourners. The Father of Israel was dead: As now with us, the Mother. A Political, tho not a Natural, nor merely an Economical one. A Mother, not in the narrower and more minute, but in the larger and most noble Sense, not of a single Family only, but of Nations.