But in other things, he may be studied and relied upon as a prudent and a judicious interpreter.

The whole natural history of the Bible is exhausted by Bochart in his Hierozoicon; as the account how the world was peopled after the flood is in his Phaleg. If our student would see variety of interpretations upon difficult places, Poole's Synopsis Criticorum', and the London Critics', which have been lately reprinted in Holland with additions, will satisfy his curiosity. I had like to have forgot Bp. Patrick's Expositions upon a great part of the Old Testament, in which there is great learning, and great variety, and what will save the reading of many volumes'.

When the Old Testament is thus made easy, our student will go to the New. There too commentaries are necessary. Grotius" and Hammond, of Le Clerc's edition, are the most considerable. Lamy's Commentary upon the Harmony of the Gospels is of admirable use to understand what our Saviour did and taught. He adjusts the time of every thing that is mentioned in the Evangelists with great exactness, and by that means clears many and important difficulties, which had escaped the diligence of those that went before him. Pearson's Annales Paulini' contain an accurate history of the actions of St. Paul. Dr. Whitby's Annotations upon the New Testament are very well worth reading; and even those who perhaps may not agree with him in every thing that he says, yet must allow him to be an interpreter, from whom many very useful things may be learnt. The History of the Canon of the New Testament is fully, and with incredible diligence and exactness, delivered to us by Dr. Mill in his Prolegomena to his noble edition of the Greek Testament. But for a constant interpreter of the text of the New Testament, I would recommend St. Chrysostom to a preacher, beyond all the commentators that ever wrote. His explications are very judicious. He seldom allegorizes; and goes to the bottom of almost every thing which he undertakes. His reducing all things to practice by those moral discourses which are annexed to

all his interpretations, and his noble and eloquent harangues upon all manner of Christian duties, will be exceedingly useful to any one, whose business it is to instruct the people out of the pulpit. The truth is, St. Chrysostom alone, well digested, will go a great way to form a solid and an eloquent preacher. His commentaries are well epitomized by Theophylact, and not ill by Ecumenius. Theophylact is plain and short, and easily intelligible by any man that understands the text of the Greek Testament.

When our student has gone thus far, he will be competently well acquainted with the charters of our religion; and when he understands the tenure by which we hope to hold hereafter, he will be able to clear that title to others. But I would not have him rest here. An acquaintance with the wiles of Satan, which in every age have been various, and have operated variously, will be of unspeakable use. The first enemies of Christianity were Jews and Heathens. By the text of the Old Testament, well understood, we shall be able sufficiently to confute the reasonings, and defeat the pretences, of the former. To know how the first Christians opposed the latter, the ancient apologists ought carefully to be studied. The first fathers were in deed, as well as in name, Apostolici. The most ancient of them, who in the Greek church were read along with the canonical Scriptures in their public assemblies, are admirably well turned into English by our truly great metropolitan'. Cotelerius has printed them in Greek and Latin, and his edition has been lately reprinted in Holland by Mr. Le Clerc. The chiefest apologists are Justin Martyr", Minutius Felix1, Tertullian, Athenagoras', Origen" against Celsus, and Eusebius" in his discourses of Evangelical Preparation and Demonstration. These last contain a noble treasure of ancient learning. Eusebius in Greek, and St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei', in Latin, have rifled the Gentile stores, and made the Heathen learning exceedingly subservient to the overthrowing the Heathen religion. To these I may add Clemens Alexandrinus's Stromata, and Theodoret De

Curandis Græcorum Affectibus, and then you have the most considerable books of that kind which are preserved to us of the ancients. In Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho the Jew', we see what weapons the first Christians used against that nation. The discipline of the primitive church we see in Ignatius's and Cyprian's' Epistles, and in some of Tertullian's" pieces. Ignatius's and Cyprian's Epistles should be thoroughly digested, if we would bear up successfully against the opposers of our hierarchy. Along with these I would advise our student to read Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History*, (Valesius's edition is incomparably the best of him,) and the other Greek ecclesiastical historians. If that edition be not at hand, Dr. Shorting's English translation may be used, who has abridged Valesius's notes with great judgment.

When the Empire became Christian under Constantine the Great, a new scene opened, and instead of joining against the common enemy, Christians fought against one another. They had indeed some contest with Heretics before, but the opinions of many of them were monstrous, not far extended, and most of them short-lived. If our student be curious to know what they were, he may be fully satisfied in Irenæus' and Epiphanius". The truth is, the common danger united the Christians in those days, and frequent persecutions kept those who were constantly preparing for the fiery trial, in a good measure uncorrupt in the faith, as well as exact in their conversations. What I say here will be better understood from Dr. Cave's Primitive Christianity", and Fleury's Manners of the Ancient Christians", than from any thing which I can add of my own. Their first disputes, when they were quiet abroad, were concerning the mysteries of our faith among themselves. The state of these controversies will be well comprehended by the Ecclesiastical History of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret, and by the polemical and apologetical writings of St. Athanasius, which may 9 170. r p. p. 96. $ p. 90. t p. 60. x p. 69. Reading's Edition is now lished after the above was written. У р. 91. p. 68.

u

p. 169. considered as the best; it was pub

a p. 48.

bp. 73.

p. 69 and 158.

be persued in a small time. And what the orthodox believed upon all these subjects, is beautifully delivered in very many discourses of St. Chrysostom.

The history of the Donatists, whose schism broke out in the West, about the time that Arianism began to inflame the East, should likewise be known. It will be useful in the present age, when ecclesiastical discipline, and indeed the whole power of the Church, has been so impudently ridiculed. St. Augustine's Tracts against the Donatists, and Optatus's Discourse of Schism against Parmenianus', will give a sufficient taste of the ancients' way of reasoning upon these subjects.

If our student would know, in the general, what the decisions of the ancient Church were in its councils, Carranza's and Cabassutius's" Summs will satisfy him; and the history of their several meetings is accurately written by Du Pin', whose account of ecclesiastical writers is undoubtedly the best we have.

But I suppose it will be expected, that I should now come home. An English divine is obliged to preach to the people of England, and to defend the faith and discipline of the Church of England against all opposers. The manner of our preaching now, which is come to an admirable height, is chiefly to be learnt from the preachers since the restoration of King Charles II. and among them Archbishop Tillotson is unquestionably the greatest man in that way. The sermons which he published himself differ so much from his posthumous ones, that one would hardly think many of them to have been written by the same man. Art, and elegance, and perspicuity, appear in the utmost perfection in the former; and when I would labour to compose a sermon with the utmost care, I would prepare my mind, and consequently my style, with reading some few of those discourses beforehand. To some of his posthumous discourses he put his last hand. The rest shew great judgment and knowledge of the holy Scriptures; and being composed with wonderful familiarity and easiness of style, without any affectation of eloquence, may be imitated with advantage by one that would

speak to a plain unlearned audience; and therefore to a preacher, who is not supposed, as Bp. Sanderson says, to preach ad aulam, they will be very serviceable; to whom for the same purpose I would likewise recommend Mr. Bragge's Discourses upon the Parables and Miracles of our Saviour'; especially if he would learn to emancipate himself from the slavery of using notes; which is never to be done by endeavouring to imitate the brightest patterns, or copying after the most laboured compositions. But here, since I have mentioned preaching without notes, I would earnestly advise our student not to attempt it, till he is so far a master of his profession, as that he can, upon any occasion, produce out of his own treasure, things new and old. Otherwise, what he says will be tattling, not preaching. Before Archbishop Tillotson's time there were not many considerable collections of sermons, except Gataker's in and Sanderson's". In Gataker's sermons (suitably to the very great learning of the man) there is a wonderful variety of useful matter, but his manner is not now to be imitated. What Bp. Sanderson has writ is all gold, and thoroughly refined. His judgment is exquisite, and not a word is to be lost; but he is rather to be digested than copied. The preachers since Tillotson are obvious; so I shall name none but Dr. Barrow, who with his extensive knowledge, and rare copia of words, (in the choice of which, it must be confessed, he is not always exact,) seems to have purposely collected whatsoever could be possibly said upon any subject. No man that reads Dr. Barrow upon any subject which he has handled, needs rack his invention for topics upon which to speak, or for arguments to make these topics good.

If our divine is obliged to be a constant preacher, it will be necessary for him to have what is commonly called a body of divinity in his head. In order to that, I would advise him first to begin with Grotius, of the Truth of the Christian Religion, which should be in a manner got by heart; and when that is well digested, he may then, with great profit, go through with some general systems of divinity. Of these I would recommend four; two written by our divines, and two p. 74. P p. 79, and 80.

1

p. 40.

n

p. 145.

p. 30.