In the twentieth letter, the author defcribes the funeral of the princefs Kurakin, as an example of the Ruffian ceremonies in the burial of the dead. One part of the ceremony is the afpafmus, or laft embrace, accompanied with a hymn, recited by the attending clergy. This hymn, according to our author's information, was written originally in Greek, by the famous Joannes Damafcenus; and was tranflated from him, for the use of the Ruffian church, into the Sclavonian, the dialect used in Ruffia in acts of religious worship: A tranf• lation of it into English is given in one of these letters. -We soon afterwards meet with the tranflation of an elegiac poem, from the original of a young Lufatian. The subject is, the Victim of fancied Woe; a fubject perhaps more congenial to a vitiated than a found imagination; but the magic of the mufe can more than compenfate the ideas that flow from apprehenfion; and the animated fenfibility expreffed in the version, affords additional evidence of the author's poetical talents.

[To be continued.]

Sermons on the Evidence of a future State of Rewards and Pinishments, arifing from a View of our Nature and Condition; in which are confidered fome Objections of Hume: preached before the University of Cambridge. By William Craven, B. D. 8vo. 2s. 6d. ferved. Cadell.

IT

Tis certain, that the government of an infinitely wife and good Being must be uniform and confiftent; and in every inftance, and at every period, perfectly calculated to promote the order and harmony of the universe, and the happiness of every fubordinate creature. The knowlege which we have of the divine administration, is confined to the narrow limits of this earth, and the prefent life. We fee only the beginning of an important plan; a fmall part of the great drama of nature: but from this imperfect fpecimen we have reason to conclude, that the part which is to follow, will be noble and extenfive, and gradually difplay fill higher degrees of confummate rectitude and benevolence.

The learned author of these difcourfes confiders the fitaation of mankind in the present state, and from thence deduces very proper and reasonable conclufions, relative to their future deftination.

From their circumftances and endowments he fhews, that this life is a state of difcipline and probation; and confequently, that it is preparatory to a state of rewards and pupifhments. He obferves, that the fame inference may be

drawn

drawn from the works of a fupreme Being. By a particular furvey of the present state, he endeavours to open a clearer profpect into the next. He confiders the ufe and beauty of general laws in the natural and moral world, and the adminiftration of the prefent life.

In compliance with the maxims advanced by certain philo, fophers, he endeavours to explain how far the doctrine of future rewards and punishments may be maintained on the ground of experience, by confidering the future administration of affairs, as an image or copy of the prefent fyftem. In the laft difcourfe he fhews, that the principles of thefe philofophers, though properly applied, are in themselves, narrow and defective; and that our experience is not to be confidered as the ftandard and measure of our expectations.

• In the house of God are many manfions, inhabited, it may be, by different orders of intellectual beings, among whom various laws reign, various difpenfations fubfift, as their feveral capacities or conditions require. There are however within the fphere of our knowlege, creatures without number, each under regulations peculiar to their own kind. But if different creatures are treated differently, the like may be fuppofed of the fame creatures, in different periods of their existence. We are now only in our first stage, in the very infancy of our being. Rude as we are, and uninformed, we are placed in this world: and we can partly comprehend in what refpects we are properly fituated. But when we confider the nature of the human mind, and what farther attainments it is capable of; how much our wills may be refined, and how our understandings may be enlarged without limit; we fhall think it not impoffible, but there may be a variety of ftates, differing in degrees of happiness, to which, if we fall not fhort of the glories referved for us, we are to fucceed, as we advance in knowlege and vir tue. From the throne of God proceed fountains of living water, at which all creatures drink, each in the place of their abode, and diftinguished by their feveral claffes. To us, at our immenfe diftance, and in this vale of mifery, the ftream that flows is not pure and unmixed: but then we are to travel forward, and draw nearer and nearer to the lofty fource of hap piness and perfection, by infinite gradations, by endless approaches.

Having our minds big with fuch reflections, we shall be unwilling to be perfuaded, that the parts of our present and future existence are exactly of a piece and resemble each other; that this life is to be made the ftandard of our expectations, a kind of boundary; fo that we are to form to ourselves no hope of a future happiness, which falls not within its limits, and is not confirmed by practice and observation: instead of attending to fuch maxims of philofophy, we fhall rather be inclined to listen to the voice of Scripture, where it fpeaks a language

more

more agreeable both to our natural defires and the genuine dictates of reafon; eye hath not feen nor ear heard, neither have entered the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him.'

Thefe difcourfes are of a fpeculative and metaphyfical caft, and not calculated for fuperficial readers. They have been in part published before, but now appear with confiderable additions; and the plan of them is entirely altered, to adapt them the better as an answer to the objections made of late to the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments.'

A Succinct Account of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jews, By David Levi., 8vo.

THIS

45. 6d.

Parfons.

'HIS work was compiled for the benefit and information of two forts of readers, Jews and Chriftians. Its utility, with refpect to the former, is obvious; for though their rites and ceremonies are all prescribed and explained in Hebrew books, yet as Hebrew is not ufed by them as a common language, and is therefore not understood by the generality, it was of great ufe to furnish them with a regular and distinct account of their religious cuftoms and tenets in English. The ufe of fuch a work as this, with regard to Chriftian readers, is equally manifeft. Theological and historical writers have frequent occafion to mention the notions of modern Jews: it is therefore very proper, that they should know how the Jews themselves explain their own rituals, and exhibit their credenda; for we make no doubt, but that fome of our learned writers have mistaken their principles, or their practices, and charged them with abfurdities, which are fufceptible of a more favourable conftruction.

A treatise on the religious and fecular cuftoms of the Jews in Barbary, was published in 1675, by Mr. afterwards Dr. Lancelot Addison (the father of the celebrated Mr. Addison) who was for fome years chaplain to the garrifon at Tangier. But that author feems to have taken his ideas from converfation, or his own cafual obfervations, and not from any Jewish records. His remarks therefore, in many cafes, are not properly authenticated. The writer, whofe work is now before us, on the contrary, always cites the Talmuds and other Jewish books; and confequently gives the inquifitive reader as much fatisfaction as the nature of the fubject will admit.

As we are willing to think favourable of the Jews when we can, we shall cite one of his remarks, in answer to Dr. Prideaux, who fays that the refurrection which the Pharifees held, was no more than a Pythagorean refurrection; and that

8.

they

they knew of no other, till they learned it from the followers of Christ.'

Having cited several verfes from the 37th chapter of Ezekiel, Rabbi Levi thus proceeds;

"And lo they

"Then he faid

A plainer refurrection (of the foul with the fame body) than this is, I will maintain never was preached, either by Chrift, or his followers: for it is not a refurrection of one man raised from the dead four days after his death, and that perfon a fingular beloved one: but the refurrection of a numerous hoft, as the prophet emphatically expresses himself. "An exceeding great army." They alfo had lain there fo long, that the flesh was entirely confumed from off their bodies, fo that there was nothing left but the bones, and they' very dry and perifhed, as the prophet fays. were very dry." But mark the conclufion. unto me, fon of man, these bones are the whole house of Ifrael; behold, they fay our bones are dried, and our hope is loft, we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophefy, and fay unto them, thus faith the Lord God, behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and ye fhall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my fpirit in you and ye fhall live." This furely, is not a Pythagorean refurrection, as the doctor fays, for here is no tranfmigration of the foul out of one body into another: because here is no new birth, but on the contrary, a real resurrection of thofe dead bodies which had lain there fo long; and that, by means of their foul entering into their bodies again. Secondly, the prophet Daniel fays. “And many of them that fleep in the duft of the earth shall awake fome to everlasting life, and fome to fhame and everlafting contempt." And as the prophet Ezekiel lived almoft fix hundred years before Chrift, and Daniel being cotemporary with the former, this will plainly fhew the falfity of the doctor's propofition: for is it not a little furprifing, that the Jews fhould learn a refurrection of the followers of Christ, when they knew of a refurrection almost six hundred years before his being on earth and that refurrection, a plainer one than either he or his followers ever taught; to me, and to every unprejudiced mind, it feems moft probable that the Chriftians learnt it of the Jews, than that, the latter fhould learn it from the former. But a ftill ftronger and more convincing proof, that the Jews both knew of, and taught a refurrection, long before Chrift was upon earth, I fhall produce from the words of the prophet Ifaiah, who in speaking to the Jews fays, "Thy dead men fhall live, together with my dead

body

body shall they arife; awake and fing ye that dwell in the duft, for thy dew is as the dew of herbs." Now, I defy all the advocates for the doctor's hypothefis, to produce any one fubftantial argument to invalidate the clearness of this refurrection and as the prophet Ifaiah prophefied almost two hundred years before the prophet Ezekiel; for he received the oral law from Amos, in the year 3140, which is just 192 years before Ezekiel received it from Jeremiah; this will carry us up as high as the year 786 before Chrift, and 32 years before the building of Rome. And from the manner in which the prophet made use of the foregoing paffage, may be deduced the following propofition, viz. that the doctrine of the refurrection was well known to the Jewish nation long before his time; for, in exciting the Jews to have confidence in God, and not to defpair on acconnt of their captivity, and the troubles and afflictions which they should fuffer therein, foretells them that God would redeem them, and also punish those that had oppreffed them; and in speaking of the punishment of their oppreffors, fays in particular, "they are dead, they fhall not live, they are deceased, they fhall not rife." This the prophet mentions as the greateft punishment that can poffibly be inflicted upon them; and which in comforting of the Jews, he tells them should not be their ftate: hence it is plain, that the doctrine of the refurrection, (and confequently that of reward and punishment,) was well known to, and taught by the Jewish nation, long before the time of the prophet Isaiah; otherwise the prophet would never have made use of the phrafeology which he did: for what comfort could it have been to the Jews, to be told of enjoying that which they had no idea. of, and confequently were not able to comprehend? It would rather have been moft likely to have had the contrary effect; and they have thought that the prophet was only bantering of them ; which might have been the means of exciting them to defpair, and not comfort. But the truth of the matter is, that the Jewish nation were well verfed in the doctrine of the refurrection, and future ftate of reward and punishment, (as I have already shewn,) and hoping to enjoy it as their supreme good; confequently there was no promife which could bet made to them, that could conduce more effectually to keep up their spirits, and place their firm reliance on God's providence than this; which fhewed them, that although they were punished in this life, by being fcattered among all nations for fo many ages, and cruelly ufed by them for their fins; yet fhould they receive their reward (provided they adhered to God, and kept his law and commandments,) in a future ftate, as they were taught to expect; and from which their op

preffors