By this _Art_ the _Surgeon_, in a rightly prepar’d Skeleton, sees the natural Position of the Bones, and proper Motions of each Part, with the true and natural Schemes of the Veins, Arteries, Nerves and other curious Preparations; which not only teach him the difference between the Muscles, the _similar_, _dissimilar_, and _containing_ as well as _contained_ Parts of the Body; but likewise how, in performing each Operation, he should skilfully avoid Cutting what he should not, and destroying the Function of that he is to relieve. He is also hereby instructed what Remedies may be found out against _Gangrenes_, _Sphacelus_ and other Distempers that are judg’d Incurable without being extirpated by Knife or Fire: Who then can sufficiently admire and value this Noble _Art of Embalming_ since it tends to the Conservation both of Life and Limb? [Sidenote: _Anatomy_ deficient without it.] For tho’ _Anatomy_ gives us an Insight into these Things in general, yet is it deficient without the _Balsamic Art_, in as much as it can neither so particularly nor frequently shew us, what in conjunction with it, may without any offence be Contemplated at any Time, and as often as we please. [Sidenote: How useful in _Divinity_.] Thus may we entirely conquer and accomplish that _Delphian_ Oracle, Γνῶθι σεαυτὸν, by making most of our Disquisitions into Human Nature by _Dissections_: And tho’ Brutes may sometimes be useful in _Comparative Anatomy_, yet Man being the _Epitome_ and Perfection of the _Macrocosm_, his Body shews a more wonderful Mechanism than all other Creatures can do, as one thus very elegantly expresses in Latin: _Hominem_ (says he) _a DEO post reliqua factum fuisse; ut DEUS in ipso exprimeret, sub brevi quodam Compendio, quicquid diffuse ante fecerat_. [Sidenote: What accounted by this Age and what by the _Antients_.] The present Age therefore accounts the chief Use of this _Art_ to be in _Anatomical_ Preparations; but I shall shew another more antient and more general, which is the Preserving a Human Dead Body entire, and which is properly term’d _Embalming_: More antient, I say, as having been first devis’d and practis’d by the Wise and Learned _Egyptians_, and more general in that it relates to every particular Person, yet is it by most despis’d and look’d on meerly as an unnecessary expensive Trouble; so that unless I can convince these People to the contrary, I must not expect to find my ensuing Labours meet with any Favour. But before I affirm _The Art of Embalming_ to be a particular part of that Duty, which obliges all Mankind to take care of their Dead, [Sidenote: The Right of Burial and Funeral Ceremonies.] I shall give some cogent Reasons to prove the Right of Burial, what Things are necessary thereto, whether Ceremonies are needless and superstitious, or Monuments vain-glorious, _&c._ and this shall be as Nature dictates, the Law of GOD appoints, and the Law of Nations directs and obliges. [Sidenote: _Sepulture_ a Debt to Nature.]