A Portraiture of Quakerism, Volume 2 | Page 9

It seems inconsistent, therefore, to accompany with all
the outward signs of honour and greatness the body of a poor wretch,
who has had this difficult and awful task to perform, and who is on his
last earthly journey, previously to his appearance before the tribunal of
the Almighty to be judged for the deeds which he has committed in the
flesh.
Actuated by such sentiments as these, the Quakers have discarded all
parade at their funerals. When they die, they are buried in a manner
singularly plain. The corpse is deposited in a plain coffin. When carried
to the meeting-house or grave-yard, it is attended by relations and
friends. These have nothing different at this time in their external
garments from their ordinary dress. Neither man nor horse is apparelled
for the purpose. All pomp and parade, however rich the deceased may
have been, are banished from their funeral processions. The corpse, at
length, arrives at the meeting-house[2]. It is suffered to remain there in
the sight of the spectators. The congregation then sit in silence, as at a
meeting for worship. If any one feels himself induced to speak, he
delivers himself accordingly; if not, no other rite is used at this time. In
process of time the coffin is taken out of the meeting-house, and carried
to the grave. Many of the acquaintances of the deceased, both Quakers
and others, follow it. It is at length placed by the side of the grave. A
solemn, silent pause, immediately takes place. It is then interred.
Another shorter pause then generally follows. These pauses are made,

that the "spectators may be more deeply touched with a sense of their
approaching exit, and their future state." If a minister or other person,
during these pauses, have any observation or exhortation to make,
which is frequently the case, he makes it. If no person should feel
himself impressed to speak, the assembled persons depart. The act of
seeing the body deposited in the grave, is the last public act of respect
which the Quakers show to their deceased relations. This is the whole
process of a Quaker-funeral.
[Footnote 2: It is sometimes buried without being carried there.]
SECT. II.
_Quakers use no vaults in their burying-grounds--Relations sometimes
buried near each other, but oftener otherwise--They use no tomb-stones
or monumental inscriptions--Reasons for this disuse--But they
sometimes record accounts of the lives, deaths, and dying sayings, of
their Ministers._
The Quakers, in the infancy of their institution, were buried in their
gardens, or orchards, or in the fields and premises of one another. They
had at that time no grave-yards of their own; and they refused to be
buried in those of the church, lest they should thus acknowledge the
validity of an human appointment of the priesthood, the propriety of
payment for gospel-labour, and the peculiar holiness of consecrated
ground. This refusal to be buried within the precincts of the church,
was considered as the bearing of their testimony for truth. In process of
time they raised their own meeting-houses, and had their respective
burying places. But these were not always contiguous, but sometimes at
a distance from one another, The Quakers have no sepulchres or arched
vaults under ground for the reception of their dead. There has been here
and there a vault, and there is here and there a grave with sides of brick;
but the coffins, containing their bodies, are usually committed to the
dust.
I may observe also, that the Quakers are sometimes buried near their
relations, but more frequently otherwise. In places where the
Quaker-population is thin, and the burial ground large, a relation is
buried next to a relation, if it be desired. In other places, however, the
graves are usually dug in rows, and the bodies deposited in them, not as
their relations lie, but as they happen to be opened in succession
without any attention to family connexions. When the first grave in the

row is opened and filled, the person who dies next, is put into that
which is next to it; and the person who dies next, occupies that which is
next to the second[3]. It is to many an endearing thought, that they shall
lie after their death, near the remains of those whom they loved in life.
But the Quakers, in general, have not thought it right or wise to indulge
such feelings. They believe that all good men, however their bodies
may be separated in their subterraneous houses of clay, will assuredly
meet at the resurrection of the just.
[Footnote 3: By this process a small piece of ground is longer in filling,
no room being lost, and the danger and disagreeable necessity of
opening graves before the bodies in them are decayed, is avoided.]
The Quakers also reject the fashions