delightful prospects have vanished like the morning cloud! What a melancholy change from yonder elegant mansion and pleasant apartinents, to the house of darkness and the chambers of silence! from the soul-reviving converse of a kind brother, an affectionate wife and four lovely childrento say to corruption thou art my father, and to the worm thou art my mother and my sister! In circumstances like these, tears so far from being an unmanly weakness, exhibit one of the most amiable parts of our nature; they are the very essence of commiseration, and when seasonably poured forth, may revive the drooping spirit of the little helpless orphan, and cause even the widow's heart to dance for joy.

And this leads me briefly to observe, that our much esteemed and lamented friend did not fail to leave behind him a testimony in favour of the Christian religion. He was indeed no fanatic or enthusiast, but I hope he was a sober and rational and thinking believer in the Son of God. And in deed he assured me, that from his early days, at different periods and on many occasions, he had been accustomed to think very seriously about an eternal world and the doctrines of the Bible, which he believed were perfectly correct, unspeakably excellent, and inviolably true. On the Holy Scriptures he would invariably speak with the utmost reverence and esteem. In them he discovered such transcendant excellency and great goodness-such sublimity of sentiment and elegance of style,, such godly love, truth, and faithfulness-such angelic purity and heavenly piety, as constrained him with seriousness and affection to join the devout Psalmist, and say, Thy testimonies, O Lord, are wonderful! I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes." Yea his chief delight (for the time before mentioned) seemed to be the law of the Lord, for in that law, especially in the psalms, the gospels and the epistles, "he did meditate day and night." And the

day before his death he assured a that not from any composition of man, or from any one text or passage in the Bible, but from devoutly meditating upon the various portions of God's word, which he had read and heard, were his knowledge of salvation and the hope of a blessed acceptance through Jesus Christ derived. Prayer he considered as the most direct, effectual, and rational means of obtaining the blessing of the Lord: he would often therefore in fervency of spirit utter the most devout ejaculations. He also read prayers and prayed without a form. Piety, charity, and resignation, were strikingly visible in his close. Such was the end of that great, honourable, and worthy man. I have said nothing of his domestic and private virtues. As a husband, a parent, a brother and a friend, ye all know the excellency of his example. Let us see that none of us come short in these things. O may we by faith and prayer follow those who now inherit the promises. Over the tomb of Lazarus Jesus wept; like him we also may weep; but, my brethren, we cannot like Jesus raise the dead, and restore our departed friend to his disconsolate family-his mourning brother-widow and fatherless children. Yet, if permitted, and we feel so disposed, can we not shew kindness to the living, and erect a monument of praise to the memory of him who is among us no more? "Blessed of the Lord is he who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead." Such was the conduct of our blessed Lord. He wept over the deceased and comforted the surviving; and as he is not one who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, when on the removal of those who were most dear to our souls, our heart is overwhelmed within us, let us, with Martha and Mary, tell all our grief to him who is a friend that loveth at all times, and sticketh closer than a brother, a husland, or a son, so shall we receive from him everlasting consolation. For he hath said, come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

[We have already some materials for filling up this department of our Work regularly, and we trust to our Correspondents for the means of making it a permanent source of instruction and entertainment. ED.] Letter I. from Rev. E. Williams to

Rev. Mr. Grove, Taunton.

talk of getting me excused for once a day. I have heard a most agreeable account of the situation of the house. Mr. Milner has gained a very great reputation by his Charge. Mr. Chandler and many others think it the best they ever met with, and the ingenious author is much inquired after. Mr. Hallett's answer is come to the

REV. SIR,

THE

London, April 22, 1731,

THE long silence I have kept, may seem not very consistent with a just sense of my obligations to you. The only reason I have to offer is the unsettled state of my affairs, through Mr. Lambe's absence, and my desire of writing somewhat certain. I shall always be sensible of the advantage I enjoyed in being educated under you, and of the particular favours I received from you. Methinks I have lost a tutor, a friend, and a father, unless notwithstanding my removal, you will still give me leave to look upon you as such, by permitting me to apply to you; and as I shall always remember you under those agreeable relations, so I hope I shall be always careful to improve the advantages I then enjoyed. I look upou myself as indebted to you, for the respect and civility I meet with from my friends here, and hope I shall answer what is justly expected from one who has enjoyed so great advantages. I have preached twice before Mr. Lambe, and my going to him is at length determined, though the time is not as yet fixed, but am to go with him for Gloucester in about five weeks. I dine with them every Thursday: they are extremely courteous and affable, and converse as freely as I could wish, without that ceremony and distance usual with persons of their high rank, and hope I will be more free when better acquainted; but some of the ministers talk of my not being there for above three years. There is no harmony between them and Dr. Wright: they have not consulted him all along, at which he has expressed the highest resentment, but he does all that he can to serve me in the affair. The house at Fairford is to be licensed, but the London ministers

count of it only that it is designed to be a direct answer, and that the bookseller is not determined whether he shall publish it before winter. Dr. Gravenor and Harris were wishing to see the necessity of a satisfaction stated, and were exceedingly pleased with the hopes of seeing it done by so good a hand. When I mentioned the reasons which I thought made it expedient, I found they were not for carrying it higher. Others I find give into the notion of the absolute necessity of it for want of seeing the other notion well stated, and therefore ask why was it set on foot if not necessary? an objection which (to me) the right stating of it will entirely remove. Your preface on moral fitnesses was extremely acceptable to many; but we have some gentlemen furious for denonstration, who still cry out for more proof. I mentioned to one of these some of the plainest instances of a difference in actions, and was told it was all by an arbitrary determination; but for this determination I can find no sufficient reason given, unless an intrinsic real difference be supposed. I asked whether it was fit I should pursue my own happiness, or whether the desire of happiness was an arbitrary determination, antecedent to which happiness or misery are supposed indifferent: and even this was asserted. What notion these gentlemen must have of reason I cannot see. I am however glad to see that virtue and vice, happiness and misery, stand upon the same foot; and indeed I can no more doubt of a difference between the two former, than between the latter. My friend having extolled the mathematics as certain, we proceeded to that: he told me, that three and two make five is not a postulatum, but that three and two are same idea as five, and therefore equal: I should

which enriched them, were not the proper places to introduce the innovations proposed by the reformer: he therefore embraced the idea of directing his steps towards the East, with a view to insinuate himself among the tribes of the Bedouin Arabs, who, being indiferent about the worship, and too little enlightened to support or defend its particular rites, were not on the other hand interested in the support of any one in particular, and consequently left him more facilities to promulgate his system among them, and to induce them to embrace it, without incurring any danger.

In reality, Abdoulwehhab made a proselyte of Ibn Saaoud, Prince or grand Scheik of the Arabs, established at Draauja, a town seventeen days journey east of Medina, in the desert. The period of the reform of Abdoul wehhab may be reckoned from that date (1747).

I have already remarked, that the reform was confined absolutely to the text of the Koran, and that it rejected all the additions of the imams and lawdoctors; in consequence of which, the reformer annulled the difference of the four orthodox rites called Schaffi, Maleki, Hanbeli, and Haneffi. Notwithstanding which, I have known several Wehhabites who still followed one or other of these rites, and did not think them annulled.

Every good Mussulman believes, that after the death and burial of the prophet, his soul reunited itself to his body, and ascended to Paradise, mounted upon the mare of the angel Gabriel, named El Borak, the head and neck of which were of a fine form.

This event, indeed, is not an article of the faith; but the Mussulinan who did not believe it would be looked upon as impious, and treated as such. Abdoulwehhab proclaimed that this event was absolutely false, and that the mortal remains of the prophet remained in the sepulchre the same as those of other men.

Among the Mussulmen it is customary to inter those who have obtained the reputation of being virtuous, or saints, in a private sepulchre, more or less ornamented, after their death, and to build a chapel over it, where their protection is invoked for the supplicant; and God is supposed to befriend their intercession.

If the reputation of any particular

saint become fashionable, the derotion increases, the chapel is enlarged, and soon becomes a temple, with administrators, servants, &c. chosen generally from among the individuals of his family, by which means the relations of the saint acquire a situation more or less opulent; but, by an unaccountable whimsicality, it often happens that the people accord the honours of a saint to a fool or an ideot, whọ is looked upon as the favourite of God, because he has refused him good sense. It is not uncommon, also, to see them honour the tomb of a sultan or of a 'cheat, whom the people have proclaimed a saint, without knowing why.

Already had the well-informed Mussulmen began to despise these superstitions secretly, though they seemed to respect them in the eyes of the people. But Abdoulwehhab declared boldly, that this species of worship rendered to the saints was a very grievous sin in the eyes of the Divinity, because it was giving him companions. In consequence of this, his sectaries have destroyed the sepulchres, chapels, and temples, elevated to their honour.

In virtue of this principle, Abdoulwehhab forbids veneration or devotion to the person of the prophet as a very great sín. This does not prevent him from acknowledging his mission; but he pretends that he was no more than another man, before God made use of him to communicate his divine word to men, and that when his mission was at an end, he became an ordinary mortal.

It is on this account that the reformer has forbidden his sectaries to visit the tomb of the prophet at Medina. When they even speak of it, instead of making use of the form employed by other Mussulmen, namely,

Our Lord Mouhhammed," or, "Our Lord the Prophet of God," they only say, Mouhhammed.

The Christians have in general a confused or false idea of the Wehha bites, and imagine that these sectaries are not Mussulmen, a denomination which they apply exclusively to the Turks, and confound frequently the names of Mussulman and Osmanli. As I write for every kind of reader, I ought to observe that Osmanli, which signifies the successor of Os man, is the epithet adopted by the