God buried Moses (Dt. 34:6).
Gerhard lists others causes for burial in On Death, $ 80 (prior paras.).
"The men against whom I have undertaken to defend the city of God
laugh at all this. But even their own (pagan) philosophers have despised
a careful burial; and often whole armies have fought and fallen for
their earthly country without caring to inquire whether they would be
left exposed on the field of battle, or become the food of wild beasts.
Of this noble disregard of burial (Lucan's) poetry has well said: 'He
who has no tomb has the sky for his vault.' How much less ought they to
insult over the unburied bodies of Christians, to whom it has been
promised that the flesh itself shall be restored, and the body formed
anew, all the members of it being gathered not only from the earth, but
from the most secret recesses of any other of the elements in which the
dead bodies of men have lain hid!
Nevertheless the bodies of the dead are not on this account to be
despised and left unburied; least of all the bodies of the righteous and
faithful, which have been used by the Holy Spirit as His organs and
instruments for all good works. For if the clothing of a father, or his
ring, or anything he wore, be precious to his children, in proportion to
the love they bore him, with how much more reason ought we to care for
the bodies of those we love, which they wore far more closely and
intimately than any clothing! For the body is not an extraneous ornament
or aid, but a part of man's very nature. And therefore to the righteous
of ancient times the last offices were piously rendered, and sepulchers
provided for them, and obsequies celebrated ([Gn 25:10;
35:29]{.ul}).
They themselves, while yet alive, gave commandment to their sons about
the burial, and, on occasion, even about the removal of their bodies to
some favorite place ([Gn 47:29-31;
50:24-26]{.ul}).
Tobit, according to the angel's testimony, is commended, and is said to
have pleased God by burying the dead (Tob 12:12). Our Lord Himself, too,
though He was to rise again the third day, applauds, and commends to our
approval, the good work of the religious woman who poured precious
ointment over His limbs, and did it against His burial ([Mt
26:10-13]{.ul}).
And the Gospel speaks with commendation of those who were careful to
take down His body from the cross, and wrap it lovingly in costly
linens, and see to its burial ([Jn
19:38]{.ul}).
These instances certainly do not prove that corpses have any
feeling; but they show that God's providence extends even to the bodies
of the dead, and that such pious offices are pleasing to Him, as
cherishing faith in the resurrection. And we may also draw from them
this wholesome lesson, that if God does not forget even any kind office
which loving care pays to the unconscious dead, how much more does He
reward the charity we exercise towards the living. Other things, indeed,
which the holy patriarchs said of the burial and removal of their
bodies, they meant to be taken in a prophetic sense. But of these we
need not here speak more, what we have already said being sufficient.
But if the want of those things which are necessary for the support of
the living, as food and clothing, though painful and trying, does not
break down the fortitude and virtuous endurance of good men, nor
eradicate piety from their souls, but rather renders it more fruitful,
how much less can the absence of the funeral, and of the other customary
attentions paid to the dead, render those wretched who are already
reposing in the hidden abodes of the blessed! Consequently, though in
the sack of Rome and of other towns the dead bodies of the Christians
were deprived of these last offices, this is neither the fault of the
living, for they could not render them; nor an affliction to the dead,
for they cannot feel the loss" (Augustine, The City of God, 1.12-13).