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,