Remarks on the Second and Third Columns.

1

Cambray on Eloquence, or fome other Rhetorick, fhould be read; not only to learn Oratory, but to be able to read any Orations with Judgment, and to improve by them. Yet Voffius may serve, if you want Time to perufe the other. You may add to both thefe, Rapin's Works in two Volumes, which will give you a good Taste of Oratory and polite Writing, and direct you to form a Judgment of Authors ancient and modern. And this is all I need fay of the Books. mention'd in the Second Column.

The third contains only Tillotson's Sermons; the Character of which is too well known, to need any Enlargement. There is one or two Points of Doctrine, particularly that of Hell-Torments, juftly exceptionable; but that has been fo much taken Notice of, and fo fully confuted by other Writers, particularly by the learned Mr. Lupton, in a Sermon ⚫ before the University of Oxford, and Dr. Whitby, in his Appendix to the Second of the Theffalonians, that it is needlefs for me to caution you any further against it. He feems to have follow'd his Author too clofe; the most exceptionable Part of the Sermon, being almost a verbal Tranflation of Epifcopius.

A fecond Point, I had in View, concerns the Satisfaction, which is modeftly and judiciously examin'd by an ingenious Lady, in a very good Book, intitled, The Religion of a Church of England Woman, p. 339, &c.

Remarks on the firft Column.

The two Theorifts, with Keil upon them, may now be useful: There is a great deal of curious Learning and Philofophy in them, which a Student may very much improve himfelf by.

Chronology is a neceffary Part of Learning, and ought to be well underftood: The two Authors here mention'd, may ferve at prefent; if you would carry it further, get Strauchius, and join it with them. Some general View of Ethicks may be proper here, before you go further: Befides the Ethic Compend. Hutcheson and Fordyce are the latest and best Systems you will meet with. Pufendorf and Grotius are admirable Books, and fhould be ftudied carefully: They are excellent Foundation for Cafuiftical Divinity; and to them may be added Sanderfon's Prelections. There is an Abridgment of Pufendorf,

done

done by himself, which may be usefully read after the larger, to help the Memory: But I would not advise you to begin with it, unless you are much ftraiten'd in Time; for it is too fhort and full, to give you a diftinct Knowledge of the Matters it treats of.

Remarks on the fecond and third Columns.

I fhall fay little of the Clafficks here mention'd, being well known. I place Homer before Virgil, because the latter takes much from him. It might be proper to read Boffu of Epick Poetry, before you undertake them. Euripides perhaps need not be read at large, but only the felect Plays in 8vo.

I need not fay much of the Sermons in the third Column. Norris is a fine Writer, for Stile and Thought, and commonly juft, except in what relates to his World of Ideas, where he fometimes trifles. You may fee in the Appendix fome other Sermons, besides these mention'd; which, if you have Time to fpare, are very well worth reading and abridging.

Books to be read in the Fourth Year.

Remarks on the Books for the Fourth Year.

Metaphyficks are chiefly useful for clear and diftinct Conceptions. Hutchefon will give a general View of their Design, and the Parts belonging to them. The two following Books in this Column are placed laft, as being more difficult to understand than any before mention'd, requiring much Thought, and clofe Application to be a Master of them.

The like Account is to be given of the Claffick Authors in the next Column.

As to the Books of Divinity, in the laft Column; fee general Directions for Divinity, towards the End.

You may wonder all this Time, that I fay Nothing of Hebrew, which must be own'd to be extremely neceffary to a Divine. I am very fenfible of it; but yet unless you have learn'd fomething of it at School, (which if you have done, take Care to carry it on with your other Studies) I fay, unless this be the Cafe, you may conveniently defer the learning of it till you have taken a Degree; for then you may lay afide all other Studies for a few Months, till you make yourself Mafter of it. And now if you defign for Orders prefently, it will not be improper to apply yourfelf wholly to Divinity for fome Time: Wherefore I fhall add an Appendix, yet further to direct you how to proceed in it, after you are Bachelor. Or if you defign not presently for Orders, you may proceed in Philofophical and Claffical Learning, and read as many as you can of the Books following, or chufe out fuch as are moft agreeable and useful. The moral Authors, Greek and Latin, I would especially recommend to your Perufal.

GREEK