Of _Justice_, in that Earth should be return’d to Earth and Dust to Dust; for, What could be more just than to restore to Mother Earth her Children, that as she had furnish’d them at first with a Material Being, Food, Raiment, Sustenance, and all things necessary, so she might at last receive them again into her Bosom, and afford them lodging ’till the Resurrection? [Sidenote: Of Mercy.] The Antients also thought it an _Act of Mercy_ to hide the Dead in the Earth, that the Organs of such Divine Souls might not be torn and devour’d by wild Beasts, Birds, _&c._ _Cicero_ in his Oration for _Quinctius_ calls Burial an _Act of Humanity_. [Sidenote: Of Humanity.] _Valerius Maximus_, Lib. 5. cap. 1. _Humanity and Mildness_. _Seneca de Benefic._ Lib. 5 cap. 20. _Humanity and Mercy_. _Ammianus Marcellinus_, Lib. 31. [Sidenote: Of Piety.] _A necessary Office of Piety_; and St. _Ambrose_ in the beginning of an Oration of his on the Death of the Emperor _Theodosius_, _The last and greatest Office of Piety_. _Isocrates_ commending the _Athenians_ for the great Care they took to bury their Dead, says, It was a mark and token of their Piety towards the Gods, since it was they and not Men that had establish’d that Law. Also _Servius_ observes _Virgil_ call’d _Æneas_ by the name of _Pious_, because of the Funeral Honours, he, with so much Care and Application, had always paid to his Relations and Friends. _Plato_ speaking of the several kinds of Justice, has not omitted what belongs to the Dead; nay _Aristotle_ thought it more just to help those that were depriv’d of Life, than to assist the Living. The _Latin_ Phrase also intimates how just a thing it is to bury the Dead, where it calls Funeral Rites, _Justa Exequiarum_, or _Justa Funebria_, _quia justum est_, _justa facere_, _solvere_, _peragere_. Nay it has no other appellation in that Language than that of Justice, and in _Greek_ of a lawful Custom, Piety and Godliness, so that amongst both the _Romans_ and _Grecians_, who have been the two most potent and civiliz’d Nations of the World, when they would express one had been Interr’d, they said, they had done him Right or Justice, and such as neglected to do the like they accounted void of all Piety and Humanity. [Sidenote: Burial the Care of the Gods.] And to shew how Religious an Act it is to bury the Dead; the _Gentiles_ assign’d the Care of all Funerals and Sepulture to certain Gods they term’d _Manes_, whose chief was _Pluto_, call’d also _Summanus_, whence all Tombs and Monuments came to be dedicated, _Diis Manibus_. _Homer_, _Euripedes_, _Aristotle_ and others have accounted Sepulture an Honour and Reward to Mens Actions; and on the contrary look’d on all such as miserable and unhappy whose Bodies lying unbury’d, wanted that last Happiness. [Sidenote: An Honour to the Dead.]