channel cut in the floor, which served to drain the drops that fall conftantly into it.

But the most furprifing thing belonging to thefe fubterraneous chambers was their doors; of which there is only one that remains hanging, being left as it were on purpose to puzzle the beholders. It confifted of a plank of ftone of about fix inches in thickness, and in its other dimensions equalling the fize of an ordinary door, or fomewhat lefs. It was carved in fuch a manner, as to resemble a piece of wainscot: the ftone of which it was made was visibly of the fame kind with the whole rock; and it turned upon two hinges in the nature of axels. These hinges were of the fame entire piece of stone with the door; and were contained in two holes of the immoveable rock, one at the top, the other at the bottom.

From these sepulchres, we returned toward the city again, and just by Herod's gate were shewn a grotto full of filthy water and mire. This paffes for the dungeon in which Jeremiah was kept by Zedekiah, till enlarged by the charity of Ebed Melech, Jer. xxxviii. At this place we concluded our vifits for that evening.

[To be continued.]

kkkkkk

An Extract from A SURVEY of the WISDOM of GOD in

HE

TH

the CREATION.

of HAI R.

Hairs are all hollow. The root of each hair is fixt

in a mucous globule, of an oval figure, which often. adheres to it, when it is pulled up by the root. They are jointed like a reed or cane, and fhoot out into fmall branches. They serve not only for a covering, but also for the excretion and expiration of an oily matter.

Every hair does properly live, and receive nourishment like the other parts. The roots do not turn white or grey in age, any fooner than the extremes. But the whole of each hair changes colour at once. Or (to speak more properly) the hairs of another colour fall off, and white ones grow in their place.

But extreme Fear may turn the hair grey, or even white in a short space. So it was in that famous inftance fome years ago. A nobleman in Germany was condemned to die, and ordered for execution in the morning. During the night, in ten or twelve hours time, all his hair turned white as flax. The Emperor being informed of this, faid, "He has fuffered enough," and pardoned him.

Since that time there has been an inftance of one of our own countrymen, who being fhipwrecked, saved himself on a small rock, furrounded by the fea. A boat took him off after he had ftaid there four hours. But in that space his hair was turned quite white.

66

Perhaps a still stranger inftance of this kind is related in the Duke of Sully's Memoirs. Henry IV. told the Marquis de la Force, That the moment he was informed, Henry the III. had published an edict, (in July, 1585) ordering all the Hugonots either to go to mass, or to abandon the kingdom in fix months, his mustaches turned fuddenly white on that fide of his face, which he supported with his hand."

Its life is of a peculiar kind, and approaches to the nature of vegetation. Hairs grow much as plants grow out of the earth, or as fome plants grow upon others: from which they draw their nourishment, and yet each has its life diftinct from the other. So Hair derives its food from fome juices in the body, but not from the nutritious juices. Accordingly the Hair may live and grow, while the body is ftarved to death.

That Hair may grow, merely as an excrefcence of the vegetable kind, appears from that memorable cafe recited by Mr. Hook, of a body which, having been buried forty-three years, was found in a manner wholly converted into Hair. The

woman

woman was buried in a coffin of wood, and lay the loweft of three in the fame grave, The others being removed and this coffin appearing, it was observed that much hair came through the clefts of it: on removing the lid, the whole appeared a very furprising fight. There was the whole figure of the corpse, exhibiting the eyes, mouth, ears, and every part. But from the very crown of the head, even to the fole of the foot, it was covered over with a very thick fet hair, long and much curled. The people, amazed at this appearance, went to touch the corpfe. But the shape fell away, as it was handled, leaving only a quantity of shapeless hair, but neither flesh nor bones, only a small part of the great toe of the right foot.

Each hair confifts of several smaller ones, wrapt up in one common covering. They send out branches at the joints. The root lies pretty deep in the skin: and by this they imbibe their proper nourishment, from the adjacent humours. Their extremes also split into two or three branches, especially if they are very dry, or too long. So that what appears a single hair to the naked eye, to the microscope appears a brush. They are grey on the fore part of the head first, particularly about the temples: the back part affords them nourishment longer. From the fame reason they fall from the crown of the head firft. Their thickness depends on the fize of the pores they iffue from: if these are small, the hair is fine. If the pores be strait, the hairs are strait; if oblique or finuous, the hairs are curled.

All hairs appear round. But the microscope discovers fome of them to be fquare, others triangular; which diversity of figures arifes merely from the diverfity of the pores. Their length depends on the quantity of humours proper to feed them, and their colour on the quality. And hence the colour ufually differs in the different ftages of life.

The hair of a moufe is a transparent tube, with a pith of fmall fibres convolved, running in fome hairs fpirally, in fome transversely, in others from top to bottom.

On the CHURCH: in a Letter to the Rev.

Rev. Sir,

Plymouth-Dock, Aug. 19, 1785,

I Will tell you my thoughts with all fimplicity, and wait for better information. If you agree with me, well: if not, we can (as Mr. Whitefield ufed to fay) agree to difagree.

For thefe forty years I have been in doubt concerning that question: "What Obedience is due to Heathenish Priefts and Mitred Infidels ?"

I have from time to time propofed my doubts to the most pious and fenfible Clergymen I knew. But they gave me no fatisfaction: rather they feemed to be puzzled as well as me. Some obedience I always paid to the Bishops, in obedience to the Laws of the land. But I cannot fee, that I am under any obligation to obey them farther than those laws require.

It is in obedience to thofe laws, that I have never exercised in England, the power which I believe God has given me. I firmly believe, I am a fcriptural Ex as much as any man in England or in Europe. (For the Uninterrupted Succeffion I know to be a fable, which no man ever did or can prove.) But this does in nowife interfere with my remaining in the Church of England: from which I have no more defire tofeparate than I had fifty years ago. I ftill attend all the Ordinances of the Church, at all opportunities. And I conftantly and earnestly defire all that are connected with me so to do. ·When Mr. Smyth preft us to " feparate from the Church," he "Go to Church no more." And this was what I meant feven and twenty years ago, when I perfuaded our Brethren "Not to feparate from the Church." But here another queftion occurs, "What is the Church of England?" It is not "all the people of England." Papifts and Diffenters are no part thereof. It is not all the people of England except Papifts

meant,

Papifts and Diffenters. Then we fhould have a glorious Church indeed! No: according to our twentieth Article, a particular Church is "a Congregation of faithful people (Catus credentium, the words in our Latin edition) among whom the word of God is preached, and the facraments duly adminiftred." Here is a true logical definition, containing both the ellence and the properties o. a Church. What then, according to this definition, is the Church of England? Does it mean, "All the believers in England (except the Papifts and Disfenters) who have the word of God and the facraments duly adminiftred among them?" I fear this does not come up to your idea of "The Church of England." Well, what more do you include in that phrafe? "Why, all the believers that adhere to the Doctrine and Difcipline eftablifhed by the Convocation under Queen Elizabeth." Nay, that Difcipline is well nigh vanished away, and the Doctrine both you and I adhere to. All those reasons against a feparation from the Church in this fenfe, I fubfcribe to fill. What then are you frighted at ? I no more feparate from it now, than I did in the year 1758. I fubmit ftill, (though fometimes with a doubting confcience) to Mitred Infidels. I do indeed vary from them in fome points of Doctrine, and in fome points of Difcipline, (by preaching abroad, for instance, by praying extempore, and by forming Societies.) But not a hair's breadth further than I believe to be meet, right, and my bounden duty. I walk ftill by the fame rule I have done for between forty and fifty years. I do nothing rafhly. It is not likely I fhould. The high-day of my blood is over. If you will go hand in hand with me, do. But do not hinder me, if you will not help. Perhaps if you had However, with or

kept close to me, I might have done better.

without help I creep on. And as I have been hitherto, fo I

ruft I fhall always be,

Your affectionate Friend and Brother,