Besides Arabic he was versed in Hebrew, Chaldaic, Coptic, Armenian, and Anglo-Saxon (with a certain want of accuracy). Wilkins was ordained in the church of England, and Wake made him in 1715 librarian at Lambeth Palace, and rector of Mongeham Parva (30 April 1716) and Great Chart (12 September 1719). He resigned both rectories on his collation in November 1719 to the rectories of Hadleigh and Monks Eleigh, Suffolk, and the place of joint commissary of the archiepiscopal deanery of Bocking, Essex. In the same year he was appointed domestic chaplain to the Archbishop.