'The field of God is sown with the seeds of the resurrection': Jeremy Taylor and the month of the departed
Jeremy Taylor's Holy Dying is a text for November days, the month of the departed. The final section of the work is "A peroration concerning the contingencies, and treatings of our departed friends after death, in order to their buriall, &c.". Addressing our duties to the departed, it sets forth what we might term a Prayer Book piety with regards to mourning. This is immediately seen in the exhortation against ostentatious ceremonies for the departed - which would, of course, be the very opposite of the sparse, reserved nature of the Prayer Book Burial of the Dead : When we have received the last breath of our friend and closed his eyes, and composed his body for the grave, then seasonable is the counsell of the son of Sirach: Weep bitterly and make great moan, and use lamentation as he is worthy, and that a day or two, lest thou be evil spoken of; and then comfort thy self for thy heavinesse. But take no grief to heart; for there is no turning again, thou shalt not ...