Two MS. pages from the Diary of John Collett Ryland, September 5-9, 1746.

Business for the Month September:

1. Holy Scriptures.— (viz.) Bible. Com. Pla Book.

Concordance—M.r Henry on Pray.r & Clark. Promises

2. Mr Henry Exposit.n on Genesis Ch. VIII.

3. Mr Gill on Matthew—Chap. VII &c

4. Mr Charnock on God’s Holiness. Goodness. Dominon. Patience &  Providence—

5. Boylean Lectures. 1.st Vol. Folio.

6. Proceed in ye New Adversaria—& fill up more of ye Old one

7. Compose New Sermons if possible every Week and revise ye Old   ones—

8. Go to Evesh. Bourt.—& Abing:

9. Compose—a Brief Memorial of Encyclopaed:—for a Friend.—

10. Read the Husbandman’s Calling—by M.r Steele

11. pursue Heads of Meditation every Lords Day for the whole Week.—

12. proceed in Improvt Mind—in Logic—and in Lat. Gr. & Heb.—& Divinity—wth Mr H.

—On ye Head of Meditation—every Week—State ye Doctrine clearly & largely—Answer all Objections—Solve all Questions & Doubts on—Resolve all Cases of Conscience—Explain—& enforce ye Practice of all ye Duties—& describe the part of Christian Experience belonging to it—Make all Sorts of Uses or Improvements.

Friday Septem.r 5. 1746—

1. Finish.d an Extract of Satan’s Devices

2. Scheme of Rhetoric from M.r Holmes

3. Ames’s Cases of Conscience.—translated part.

Saturday Sep.r 6—1746—

Spent chiefly with M.r Benjn Stennett.—

—in ye Evening Rec’d my Books from Londn—

Lord’s Day sep.r 7. 1746—

Mr. Stennett preached for me—Rom. 5: 3”—We glory in tribulations.—

In the afternoon John. 12. 21. Sir we wou’d see Jesus

Monday Sep.r 8—

1. Began M.r Weston’s Stenography—Or Short Hand.—8vo pr. Vol

2. Spent wth M.r St. & in reading D.r Mathers Manuduct:

Tuesday Sep.9—

1. Serm: xxxv—Imitation of Christ in his Example and Life—1 Jn 2: 6— M.r Hubbard

2. Began A Defence of Natural and Revealed Religion—3 Vol.s Fol:

—M.r Boyle’s Lectures from 1692 to 1732.

—Vol. 1.—Serm. 1.—Dr Bentley On the Folly of Atheism.—Ps. 14:1—

Serm. II. A Confutation of Atheism from the Faculties of the Human Soul.—

Wrote Letters to Bristol & Transcribed Hints on Cycloped.—

Text: Timothy Whelan, Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2009), pp. 3-5 (annotated version); also Eng. MS. 861, fol. 48, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. Another portion of Ryland’s diary, April 1744-September 1745, can be found at the Angus Library, Regent’s Park College, Oxford, shelfmark 6.e.27; a portion of which was printed in “A Student’s Programme in 1744,” Baptist Quarterly 2 (1924-25): 249-52. For more on Ryland’s diary, see H. Wheeler Robinson, “A Baptist Student—John Collett Ryland,” Baptist Quarterly 3 (1926-27): 25-33.

References above are to A Method for Prayer, with Scripture-Expressions Proper to be used under each Head (1710) by Matthew Henry (1662-1714); A Collection of the Promises of Scripture under their Proper Heads (1720) by Samuel Clarke (1684-1750); probably An Exposition on the Old and New Testament (1737-38) by Matthew Henry; An Exposition of the New Testament. (1746-48) by John Gill (1697-1771); most likely The Works of the Late Learned Divine Stephen Charnock, B.D., Being Several Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God (1699); possibly a version of Thomae Gatakeri Londinatis, Adversaria Miscellanea (1659) by Thomas Gataker (1574-1654); The Husbandman’s Calling, Shewing the Excellencies, Temptations, Graces, Duties &c of the Christian Husbandman:  Being the Substance of XII Sermons Preached to a Country Congregation (1670) by Richard Steele (1629-92); Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices (1669) by Thomas Brooks (1608-80); The Art of Rhetoric Made Easy, or, The Elements of Oratory Briefly Stated, and Fitted for the Practice of the Studious Youth of Great Britain and Ireland (1739) by John Holmes (1703-59); Conscience with the Power and Cases Thereof, Divided into Five bookes (1639) by William Ames (1576-1633); Stenography Completed, or, The Art of Short-hand Brought to Perfection; Being the Most Easy, Exact, Lineal, Speedy, and Legible Method Extant (1727) by James Weston; Manuductio ad Ministerium:  Directions for a Candidate of the Ministry (Boston, 1726) by Cotton Mather (1663-1728); possibly a reference to a sermon by John Hubbard (1691/92-1743) titled Christ’s Loveliness and Glory, in his Personal and Relative Characters, and Gracious Offers to Sinners:  Consider’d in Twelve Sermons Preach’d at Mr. Coward’s Lecture (1729); and Defence of Natural and Revealed Religion; Being a Collection of the Sermons Preached at the Lecture Founded by the Hon. Robert Boyle (From the year 1692 to the year 1732) (3 vols., 1739), edited by Sampson Letsome.

The Boyle Lectures were founded by Robert Boyle in 1692 to provide a platform for sermons on the evidences of God. James Hervey (1714-58) was an evangelical, Calvinistic Anglican divine and friend and correspondent of Ryland. Benjamin Stennett was a Seventh-day Baptist minister in Ingham, Norfolk, 1736-48. He was the youngest son of Joseph Stennett the elder (d. 1713).