"tinue to animate this body? And then, Body! "wherefore didft thou die? didft thou want ". gold or filver, garments, pleasures, the tender "careffes (of thofe near to thee)? and fuch "like impertinences. Their female friends "comfort them, and then carry them away "with them, leaving fometimes offerings of cakes, fruits, fweetmeats, which are, they fay, for the guardian angels of the fepulchre, to ren"der them favourable to the deceafed'."

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Authors that fpeak of the Eaftern people's visiting the tombs of their relations, almost always attribute this to the women; but it fhould feem, by this paffage, that the men visit them too, though not fo frequently as those of the other fex, who are wont to be more fufceptible of the tender emotions of grief than the men, and at the fame time think propriety requires it of them, whereas the men commonly think fuch strong expreffions of forrow would mifbecome them. Accordingly we find, that fome male friends came from Jerufalem, to condole with Mary and Martha, on account of the death of their brother Lazarus, who, when they fuppofed that her rifing up, and going out of the house, was with a view to repair to his grave to weep, "followed her,

faying, She goeth unto the grave, to weep "there." John xi. 31.

It is no wonder that they thought her rising up in hafte was to go to the grave, to weep

Tome 2, p. 387.

there,

there, for Chardin informs us in the fame page, that the mourning there doth not confift in wearing black clothes, which they call an infernal drefs, but in great outcries, in fitting motionless, in being flightly dreffed in a brown or pale habit, in refusing to take any nourishment for eight days running, as if they were determined to live no longer, &c. Her starting up then, with a fudden motion, who, it was expected, would have fat ftill, without stirring at all, and her going out of the house, made them conclude it must be to go to the grave to weep there, though, according to the modern Perfian ceremonial, it wanted five or fix days of the usual time for going to weep at the grave: the Jews, poffibly, might repair thither fooner than the Perfians do; if not, they could not account for this fudden starting up any other way.

But to return from this digreffion.—If the Jews in the Eaft readily adopt other ufages of Eastern mourning, if they deck the graves of their dead with green boughs, as has been taken notice of under a preceding obfervation, it cannot be unnatural to fuppofe, they might adopt the custom too of leaving bread, or other eatables, in their burial-places, in the time of Tobit, though it may now be feldom, if ever done: fince it fhould feem, from the manner of speaking of Sir John Chardin, the modern Persians now practise it, however not often, but rather sparingly.

The

The Chriftians too of that country seem to practise something very much like it, if not altogether the fame, according to Dr. Ruffell, who tells us they "are carried to "the grave on an open bier; and befides many appointed days, when the relations go to the fepulchre, and have mafs faid, " and fend victuals to the church and poor,

many of the women go every day for the "first year, and every great holiday after"wards." This fending victuals to the church, seems to come very near the placing eatables on the tombs of the dead; if the expreffion is not defigned directly to convey that thought to the mind,

He does not fay exactly the fame thing of the Jews of Aleppo, but he tells us concerning them, that they have certain days,

wherein they go to the fepulchres; and "the women, like those of other fects, often

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go there to howl and cry over their dead "relations"." How far the conformity of those other fects is carried, we are not told, but probably it is very confiderable.

Laftly. Such an explanation feems to agree best with the reftriction in Tobit's inftruction to his fon" Pour out thy bread on the bu rial, or tomb of the juft; but give nothing "to the wicked." For the widows and fatherlefs children of the wicked, might want to

have food fent them by their charitable neighbours, when overwhelmed with affliction, occafioned by the death of a wicked husband or parent, as well as others; but if this bread was confidered as purging away fins, or recommending the departed foul to God, he might very well forbid his fon's giving bread on that occafion, as it would be expreffing an hope concerning the dead, that was not to be entertained. The best of men have their imperfections, and the giving of alms on their behalf might be supposed to purge away their guilt; but no alms, in his apprehenfion, would remove the guilt of an heathen, or an apoftate from the law of Mofes to them no mercy, he might apprehend, could be expected to be shown.

St. Auftin fomewhere makes ufe of a like diftinction, I think, in a cafe a good deal refembling what, I should suppose, it is not improbable Tobit had in view. I do by no means take upon me to justify the fentiment of this celebrated African bishop; I believe, on the contrary, it is by no means evangelical: the text he cites from the writings of St. Paul proves it to be wrong. "For we must all

ftand before the judgment-feat of Chrift; "that every one may receive the things done "in his body, according to that he hath done, "whether it be good or bad," 2 Cor. v. 10. That HE hath done, not what others may do after his death, in order to benefit him. But

aş

as this was the best explanation of certain fuperftitious practices that obtained in his age, more especially among weaker, and lefs informed Chriftians, it is by no means an unreasonable supposition, that the fame sentiment might arife in the mind of him who wrote the book of Tobit-arife from a fimilar practice, which feems to have obtained among the Jews of his time.

The pollution that was fuppofed to attend the touching of the dead, and alfo of their graves, according to the law of Mofes, may be thought to afford a ftrong objection to the fuppofing, they were wont to give fuch alms at the tombs of their friends, which I have been propofing as what, probably, was the meaning of Tobit; fince this cuftom has been readily adopted not only by Christians, but Mohammedans too, who have the fame apprehenfion, of the impurity contracted by a dead body and a grave, as the Jews had. So Sir John Chardin obferves, in his defcription of Perfia, that they never bury in the mofques, becaufe, though the dead bodies have been purified, they notwithstanding look upon them as rendering every thing they touch impure, and the places in which they are depofited; yet, according to the next page, which I cited juft now, they fometimes leave offerings of cakes, of fruits, and of fweetmeats, at the fepulchres

of the dead.

• Numb. 19. 16, 18.

2 Tome 2, p. 386.