THE USE OF COFFINS

The Query of H.E. (Vol. i., p. 321.) seems to infer that the use of coffins may be only a modern custom. In book xxiii., chapters i. and ii., of Bingham's *Antiquities of the Christian Church*, H.E. will find ample proof of the very early use of coffins. During the first three centuries of the Church, one great distinction betwixt Heathens and Christians was, that the former burned their dead, and placed the bones and ashes in urns; whilst the latter always buried the corpse, either in a coffin or, embalmed, in a catacomb; so that it might be restored at the last day from its original dust. Th…