Quest. CLXXIII. What particular directions for order of studies, and books, should be observed by young students?

Because disorder is so great a disadvantage to young students, and because many have importuned me to name them some few of the best books, because they have no time to read, nor money to buy many, I shall here answer these two demands.

1. The order of their studies is such as respecteth their whole lives, or such as respecteth every day. It is the first which I now intend.

Direct. I. The knowledge of so much of theology as is necessary to your own duty and salvation, is the first thing which you are to learn (when you have learnt to speak). Children have souls to save; and their reason is given them to use for their Creator’s service and their salvation. 1. They can never begin to learn that too soon which they were made and redeemed to learn, and which their whole lives must be employed in practising. 2. And that which absolute necessity requireth, and without which there is no salvation. 3. And that which must tell a man the only ultimate end which he must intend, in all the moral actions of his life. For the right intention of our end is antecedent to all right use of means; and till this be done, a man hath not well begun to live, nor to use his reason; nor hath he any other work for his reason, till this be first done. He liveth but in a continual sin, that doth not make God and the public good, and his salvation, his end. Therefore they that would not have children begin with divinity, would have them serve the devil and the flesh. God must be our first and last, and all.

Not that any exact or full body or method of divinity is to be learnt so early. But, 1. The baptismal covenant must be well opened betimes, and frequently urged upon their hearts. 2. Therefore the creed, the Lord’s prayer, and decalogue, must be opened to such betimes; that is, they must be wisely catechised. 3. They must be taught the Scripture history, especially Genesis and the gospel of Christ. 4. They must, with the other scriptures, read the most plain and suitable books of practical divines (after named). 5. They must be kept in the company of suitable, wise, and exemplary christians, whose whole conversation will help them to the sense and love of holiness; and must be kept strictly from perverting, wicked company. 6. They must be frequently, lovingly, familiarly, yet seriously, treated with about the state of their own souls, and made to know their need of Christ and of his Holy Spirit, of justification and renovation. 7. They must be trained up in the practice of godliness, in prayer, pious speeches, and obedience to God and man. 8. They must be kept under the most powerful and profitable ministers of Christ that can be had. 9. They must be much urged to the study of their own hearts; to know themselves; what it is to be a man, to have reason, free-will, and an immortal soul: what it is to be a child of lapsed Adam, and an unregenerate, unpardoned sinner: what it is to be a redeemed, and a sanctified, justified person, and an adopted heir of life eternal. And by close examination to know which of these conditions is their own; to know what is their daily duty; and what their danger, and what their temptations and impediments, and how to escape.

For if once the soul be truly sanctified, then, 1. Their salvation is much secured, and the main work of their lives is happily begun, and they are ready to die safely whenever God shall call them hence. 2. It will possess them with a right end, in all the studies and labours of their lives; which is an unspeakable advantage, both for their pleasing of God and profiting of themselves and others; without which they will but profane God’s name and word, and turn the ministry into a worldly, fleshly life, and study and preach for riches, preferment, or applause, and live as he, Luke xii. 18, 19, “Soul, take thy ease, eat, drink, and be merry;” and they will make theology the way to hell, and study and preach their own condemnation. 3. A holy heart will be always under the greatest motives; and therefore will be constantly and powerfully impelled (as well in secret as before others) to diligence in studies and all good endeavours. 4. And it will make all sweet and easy to them, as being a noble work, and relishing of God’s love, and the endless glory to which it tendeth. A holy soul will all the year long be employed in sacred studies and works, as a good stomach at a feast, with constant pleasure. And then oh how happily will all go on! When a carnal person with a dull, unwilling, weary mind, taketh now and then a little, when his carnal interest itself doth prevail against his more slothful, sensual inclinations; but he never followeth it with hearty affections, and therefore seldom with good success. 4. And a holy soul will be a continual treasury and fountain of holy matter, to pour out to others, when they come to the sacred ministry; so that such a one can say more from the feeling and experience of his soul, than another can in a long time gather from his books. 5. And that which he saith will come warm to the hearers, in a more lively, experimental manner, than usual carnal preachers speak. 6. And it is liker to be attended by a greater blessing from God. 7. And there are many controversies in the church, which an experienced, holy person (cæteris paribus) hath great advantage in, above all others, to know the right, and be preserved from errors.

Direct. II. Let young men’s time (till about eighteen, nineteen, or twenty) be spent in the improvement of their memories, rather than in studies that require much judgment. Therefore let them take that time to get organical knowledge; such as are the Latin and Greek tongues first and chiefly, and then the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic; with the exactest acquaintance with the true precepts of logic: and let them learn some epitome of logic without book. In this time also let them be much conversant in history, both civil, scholastical, (of philosophers, orators, poets, &c.) and ecclesiastical. And then take in as much of the mathematics as their more necessary studies will allow them time for (still valuing knowledge according to the various degrees of usefulness).

Direct. III. When you come to seek after more abstruse and real wisdom, join together the study of physics and theology; and take not your physics as separated from or independent on theology, but as the study of God in his works, and of his works as leading to himself. Otherwise you will be but like a scrivener or printer, who maketh his letters well, but knoweth not what they signify.

Direct. IV. Unite all ὀντολογία, or knowledge of real entities, into one science; both spirits and bodies; God being taken in as the first and last, the original, director, and end of all: and study not the doctrine of bodies alone, as separated from spirits; for it is but an imaginary separation, and a delusion to men’s minds. Or if you will call them by the name of several sciences, be sure you so link those severals together that the due dependence of bodies on spirits, and of the passive natures on the active, may still be kept discernible; and then they will be one while you call them divers.

Direct. V. When you study only to know what is true, you must begin at the primum cognoscibile, and so rise in ordine cognoscendi; but when you would come to see things in their proper order, by a more perfect, satisfying knowledge, you must draw up a synthetical scheme, juxta ordinem essendi, where God must be the first and last; the first efficient Governor and End of all.

Direct. VI. Your first study of philosophy therefore should be, of yourselves; to know a man. And the knowledge of man’s soul is a part so necessary, so near, so useful, that it should take up both the first and largest room in all your physics, or knowledge of God’s works: labour therefore to be accurate in this.

Direct. VII. With the knowledge of yourselves join the knowledge of the rest of the works of God; but according to the usefulness of each part to your moral duty; and as all are related to God and you.

Direct. VIII. Be sure in all your progress that you keep a distinct knowledge of things certain and things uncertain, searchable and unsearchable, revealed and unrevealed; and lay the first as your foundation, yea, rather keep the knowledge of them as your science of physics by itself, and let no obscurity in the rest cause you to question certain things; nor ever be so perverse as to try things known, by things unknown, and to argue a minus notis. Lay no stress on small or doubtful things.

Direct. IX. Metaphysics as now taken is a mixture of organical and real knowledge; and part of it belongeth to logic, (the organical part,) and the rest is theology, pneumatology, and the highest parts of ontology, or real science.

Direct. X. In studying philosophy, 1. See that you neither neglect any helps of those that have gone before you, under pretence of taking nothing upon trust, and of studying the naked things themselves (for if every man must begin all anew, as if he had been the first philosopher, knowledge will make but small proficiency). 2. Nor yet stick in the bare belief of any author whatsoever, but study all things in their naked natures and proper evidences, though by the helps that are afforded you by others. For it is not science, but human belief, else, whoever you take it from.

Direct. XI. So certain are the numerous errors of philosophers, so uncertain a multitude of their assertions, so various their sects, and so easy it is for any to pull down much which the rest have built, and so hard to set up any comely structure that others in like manner may not cast down; that I cannot persuade you to fall in with any one sort or sect, who yet have published their sentiments to the world. The Platonists made very noble attempts in their inquiries after spiritual being; but they run into many unproved fanaticisms, and into divers errors, and want the desirable helps of true method. The wit of Aristotle was wonderful for subtilty and solidity; his knowledge vast; his method (oft) accurate; but many precarious, yea erroneous conceptions and assertions, are so placed by him, as to have a troubling and corrupting influence into all the rest. The Epicureans or Democratists were still and justly the contempt of all the sober sects; and our late Somatists that follow them, yea, and Gassendus, and many that call themselves Cartesians, yea, Cartesius himself, much more Berigardus, Regius, and Hobbes, do give so much more to mere matter and motion, than is truly due, and know or say so much too little of spirits, active natures, vital powers, which are the true principles of motion, that they differ as much from true philosophers, as a carcass or a clock from a living man. The stoics had noble ethical principles, and they (and the Platonists with the cynics) were of the best lives; but their writings are most lost, and little of their physics fully known to us, and that also hath its errors. Patricius is but a Platonist so taken with the nature of light, as insisting on that in fanatical terms, to leave out a great deal more that must he conjoined. Telesius doth the like by heat and cold, heaven and earth, and among many observable things, hath much that is unsound and of ill consequence. Campanella hath improved him, and hath many hints of better principles (especially in his primalities) than all the rest; but he fanatically runs them up into so many unproved and vain, yea, and mistaken superstructures, as that no true body of physics can be gathered out of all his works. The attempt that pious Commenius hath made in his small manual hath much that is of worth; but far short of accurateness. The Hermetical philosophers have no true method of philosophy among them; and to make their three or five principles to be so many elements, or simple bodies, constituting all compounds, and form up a system of philosophy on their suppositions, will be but a trifle, and not to satisfy judicious minds; especially considering how defective their philosophy is made by their omissions. Lullius and his followers fit not their method to the true order of the matter. Scaliger, Scheggius, Wendeline, and Sennertus (especially in his Hypomnemata) were great men, and have many excellent things; but too much of Aristotle’s goeth for current with them. My worthy, learned, and truly pious friend Mr. Sam. Gott, in his new book on Gen. i. hath many excellent notions, and much that is scarce elsewhere to be met with; but the tedious paragraphs, the defect of method, and several unproveable particulars, make it, like all human works, imperfect.

Therefore if I must direct you according to my judgment, I must advise you, 1. To suppose that philosophers are all still in very great darkness, and there is much confusion, defectiveness, error, and division, and uncertainty among them. 2. Therefore addict not yourselves absolutely to any sect of them. 3. Let your first studies of them all leave room for the changing of your judgment, and do not too hastily fix on any of their sentiments as sure, till you have heard what others say, and with ripened understandings have deeply and long studied the things themselves. 4. Choose out so much of the certainties and useful parts of physics as you can reach to, and make them know their places in subserviency to your holy principles and ends; and rather be well content with so much, than to lose too much time in a vain fatiguing of your brains for more.

I have made some attempt to draw out so much, especially de mundo et de homine, in my “Methodus Theologiæ,” though I expect it should no more satisfy others, than any of theirs have satisfied me.

Direct. XII. When you have well stated your ontology or real science, then review your logic and organical part of metaphysics; and see that verba rebus aptentur; fetch then your words and organical notions from the nature of the things. Abundance are confounded by taking up logical notions first which are unsuitable to true physical beings.

Direct. XIII. Somewhat of ethics may be well learned of philosophers, but it is nothing to the Scripture’s christian ethics.

Direct. XIV. Somewhat of artificial rhetoric and oratory should be known; but the oratory which is most natural, from the evidence of things, well managed by a good understanding and elocution, which hath least of appearing art or affectation, is ever the most effectual, and of best esteem.

Direct. XV. The doctrine of politics, especially of the nature of government and laws in general, is of great use to all that will ever understand the nature of God’s government and laws, that is, of religion. Though there be no necessity of knowing the government and laws of the land or of other countries, any further than is necessary to our obedience or outward concernments, yet so much of government and laws as nature and Scripture make common to all particular forms and countries, must be known by him that will understand morality or divinity, or will ever study the laws of the land. And it is a preposterous course, and the way of ignorance and error, for a divine to study God’s laws, and a lawyer man’s laws, before either of them know in general what a law or what government is, as nature notifieth it to us.

Direct. XVI. When you come to divinity, I am not for their way that would have you begin with the fathers, and thence form a body of divinity to yourselves: if every young student must be put on such a task, we may have many religions quickly, but shall certainly have much ignorance and error. We must not be so blind or unthankful to God as to deny that later times have brought forth abundance of theological writings, incomparably more methodical, judicious, full, clear, and excellently fitted also by application, to the good of souls, than any that are known to us since the writing of the sacred Scriptures. Reverence of antiquity hath its proper place and use, but is not to make men fools, non-proficients, or contemners of God’s greater mercies.

My advice therefore is, that you begin with a conjunction of English catechisms, and the confessions of all the churches, and the practical holy writings of our English divines; and that you never separate these asunder. These practical books do commonly themselves contain the principles, and do press them in so warm a working manner as is likest to bring them to the heart; and till they are there, they are not received according to their use, but kept as in the porch. Get then six or seven of the most judicious catechisms, and compare them well together, and compare all the confessions of the churches (where you may be sure that they put those which they account the weightiest and surest truths). And with them read daily the most spiritual heart-moving treatises, of regeneration, and our covenant with God in Christ, of repentance, faith, love, obedience, hope, and of a heavenly mind and life; as also of prayer and other particular duties, and of temptations and particular sins.

And when you have gone through the catechisms, read over three or four of the soundest systems of divinity. And after that proceed to some larger theses, and then to the study of the clearest and exactest methodists; and think not that you well understand divinity, till, 1. You know it as methodized and jointed in a due scheme, and the several parts of it in their several schemes, seeing you know not the beauty or the true sense of things, if you know them not in their proper places, where they stand in their several respects to other points: and, 2. Till it be wrought into your very hearts, and digested into a holy nature; for when all is done, it is only a holy and heavenly life, that will prove you wise, and make you happy, and give you solid peace and comfort.

Direct. XVII. When you have gone so far, set yourselves to read the ancients: 1. And take them in order as they lived. 2. Observe most the historical parts, what doctrines and practices de facto did then obtain. 3. Some must be read wholly, and some but in part. 4. Councils and church history here have a chief place.

Direct. XVIII. With them read the best commentators on the Scriptures, old and new.

Direct. XIX. And then set yourselves to the study of church controversies (though those that the times make necessary must be sooner looked into). Look first and most into those which your own consciences and practice require your acquaintance with: and above all here, read well those writings that confute atheists and infidels, and most solidly prove the truth of the christian religion; and then those that defend the greatest points. And think not much to bestow some time and labour in reading some of the old school divines.

Direct. XX. When you come to form up your belief of certainties in religion, take in nothing as sure and necessary, which the ancient churches did not receive. Many other things may be taken for truths; and in perspicuity and method the late times much excel them; but christian religion is still the same thing, and therefore we must have no other religion in the great and necessary parts than they had.

Direct. XXI. Still remember, that men’s various capacities do occasion a great variety of duties. Some men have clear and strong understandings by nature; these should study things as much as books; for possibly they may excel and correct their authors. Some are naturally of duller or less judicious heads, that with no study of things can reach half so high, as they may do by studying the writings of those who are wiser than ever they are like to be. These must take more on trust from their authors, and confess their weakness.

Direct. XXII. After or with all controversies, be well versed in the writings of those reconcilers who pretend to narrow or end the differences. For usually they are such as know more than the contenders.

I proceed now to give you some names of books.

I mention not your reading the Scripture, as supposing
it must be your constant work.