his servants the Physicians] The word for Servants, in the Originall is ghnabadim, which is used of serving of God, Deuteronomy 6:13. Isaiah 19:23. Psalms 2:11. and of man, Genesis 25:23. 1 Samuel 4:9. 1 Kings 12:7. and of the tilling of the earth the same word is used, as if it were a serving of the earth, 2 Samuel 9:10. And the word rendred Physicians is Ropheim, of Rapha, which properly signifieth to heale, or cure, literally the body, metaphorically the mind; the word Rephaim, or Raphaim, as Nephilim, Anachim, Emim, Zuzim, and Zamzummim, are commonly conceived to be Giants; but Jacob Boulduc takes paines to prove them to have beene eminent men for religion and holinesse of life, lib. 1. cap. 3. & cap. 10. & cap. 19. of his Booke of the Church before the Law; but here doubtlesse the word is to be taken not in a religious, but in a civill, or physicall or medicinall sense; where we see the practise of physick, and the approbation of Physicians is very ancient; and it was but the ignorance of the Romanes, who when they came from Greece to Rome, banished them by the counsell of Cato, as sent by the subtle Greeks to torture the Romanes, Morn. de verit. Relig. 100: 8. p. 101. And yet some ignorant Physicians there might be who might be as like to kill as to cure; for the knowledge of physick at the first (as it falleth out in other professions) was but little, else should not men have beene Deified for so small a matter as the skill of drawing of a tooth and of loosening the body by a purgation, as AEsculapius was, Cicer. 50: 3. de Nat. Deor. p. 248. Nor would Menecrates have taken so much upon him for the curing of his Patients as to assume unto himselfe the title of Jupiter, Aelian. Var. Hist. 50: 12. 100: 51. But though Physicians how excellent soever, be not to be esteemed Gods, yet their calling is honourable, and of their calling have beene very excellent men, as Luke who was one of the foure Evangelists, called by Paul the beloved Physician, Col. 4. 14. who though he began in the flesh ended in the spirit, contrary to those carnall and unconstant Galatians, Galatians 3:3. and was constant to his holy companion Paul when all others forsooke him, 2 Tim. 4. 10, 11. And though it be so honourable, yet might they without disparagemēt be servants to Joseph, because he was so great a man that throughout the whole Kingdome of Egypt none might lift up an hand or a foot without him, Genesis 41:44. embalmed] That is, bespiced, or sweetned the dead body, thay it might not be of an offensive smell to such as came neere it. The Egyptians, because they wanted convenient and seasonable buriall places, by reason of the inundation of Nilus, and would not burne their dead bodies (because they thought fire a wild beast, as the Persians did not burne their dead, because they esteemed fire to be a God) betooke themselves to the art of embalming; and therein have been so good proficients, that they have kept some of them thousands of yeares, and from Egypt they are transported into other parts of the world to be used for medicine. And hence the Jewes brought their custome of embalming, which they used in the buriall of Kings and great men, as of Asa, 2 Chronicles 16:14. and of Christ, for which they made use of Myrrhe and Aloes, Job. 19. 39. Myrrhe (so called from the Hebrew word Mor) is a gumme issuing out of a tree, in taste bitter, but in smell very sweet; and therefore the graces of Christ and his Church are compared to it, Son 1:13. This was a principall ingredient into the pretious oyntment of the high Priest, Psalms 133:2. which with other spices was made into a curious confection by the Apothecary, Exodus 30:25. Aloes (so named of the Hebrew word ahalim, or ahaloth) is a sweet wood, whereof perfumes were made; with these other sweet odoriferous ingredients were compounded, and the more for that the body was to be carried a great way to the buriall, and because the Egyptians were curious this way, as Herodot. sheweth, lib. 2. and their curiosity now and then proceeded to a ridiculous vanitie, for sometimes they furnished tables with meats, and set them before the dead, as if they were to take their meales like living men; and they used to keep their parents dead bodies at home, and sometimes to pawne them, and he that did not redeem such a pawne was held infamous. By this embalming the godly which survived might be admonished of such a corruption of nature by sinne, as makes the body of the most holy Saint subject to an ill and unsavoury sent; only Christ was embalmed without necessity, for his Body was secured from corruption, Psalms 16:10. Acts 2:31. and Acts 13:35. though haply they that bestowed that cost and paines upon it, did not thinke so of it: the Papists will not permit him that peculiar priviledge, but as they make the Saints partners with Christ in other his prerogatives, so do they in this; for they tell us of Fr. Xaverius, one of the first ten that set up the Society of the Jesuites, that his dead body after fifteene moneths was found covered with lime, and that it was not only untoucht, or untainted, but that it breathed out a yery sweet smell to them that came neere it. So Bellarm. de notis Ecc. 50: 4. 100: 14. Tom. 2. p. 274. and of their Saint Catharine, he saith he saw her body at Bononia entire, and uncorrupt, though shee died above an hundred years before his time; and he saith the same of the body of their Saint Clare, though shee had been dead about three hundred yeares before; Bellar. de Reliq. sanct. libr. 2. cap. 3. Tom. 2. p. 933. Lastly, religious persons hereby meant to remember themselves of the resurrection of the body, and the preservation of it eternally afterwards.