1796.] 
Then Limborg’s Theology & Epifco- 
pius’s Inftitutions. When you have got 
this view of the General Body of Theo- 
logy, You may enter upon Controverfy. 
—Agt the Atheiits the beft books in their 
feveral kinds, are Cudworth’s Int. Syftem 
& Mr. Baxter’s Inquiry into the nature 
of the human Soul. Agtthe Deifts you 
may read the prefent BP of Durham’s 
‘2 Anfwers to Collin’s Grounds & Rea- 
fons, and Dean Connibere’s anfwer to 
‘Tindal’s Chrift: as cld as y¢ Creat: 
Thofe two books of Collins and Tindal 
being the very fort and ftrength of Infi- 
-delity you will come at once into the grand 
principles of the Controverly. ‘ Agt the 
Jews you may read Limborg’s Amica col- 
Jatio cum erudito Judeo where you will 
fee the two greateft champions of the 2 
Religions engaged. Agt the Papifts I 
meed recommend no other to you than 
Chillingworth and ag* the Prefbyterians, 
On Negheéted Biography. 
131 
make an excellent library. You fee I 
have confined my felfe only to your quef- 
tions which concern your® Theological 
Studys only & that the general principles 
of them. But there are many other ftudys 
that it is neceffary not to be ignorant of to 
judge foundly, in all points, of this. Be 
affured I {hall be always ready to ferve 
you being with much efteem 
«$f your very humble Serv* , 
<“W. WARBURTON. 
‘TY would not have you fhew this letter 
to any one. | 
© Puffendorf’s jus feciale Divinum®. 
aio 
‘ Mr W. Green A. B. 
* of .Clare-Hall in 
« Cambridge.’ 
ee 
On NeGLectrep BioGRAPHY. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
than Hooker both of which are the moit » 
finifhed Mafter picces. 
‘When you have gone thus far if you 
would fill enlarge your mind and put your 
foregoing ftudies to their utmoft ufe. It 
avould be proper for you to read thofe 
Books that treat of the Laws of Nature & 
Nations: and thofe which tell you what a 
State is & what a Church. What are the 
priviledges of Citizens & of y° Members 
of Religious Communities. To-begin at 
the foundation you may read Wollafton & 
Cumberland de Legibus Nature. ‘Then 
proceed on to Grotius de Jure Bel. & pac. 
& Puffendorffs de Jure Nature & gen- 
tum. After that, Lock of Government 
& Stillinfleet’s Irenicum & Puffendorf de 
habitu Religionis Chriftiane ad Vitam 
Civilem. Lhen Locks letters of Tolera- 
tion, Bayle’s Commentaire Philofophique, 
& Taylor's liberty of Prophefying. You 
will be now qualitied to goon, with profit, 
to the remaining part of your Theological 
Studies, and that is Ecclefiaftical Hiftory. 
for that of the Catholic Church of the firft 
ages you may read Mr. Le Clerk’s Hift. 
Eccles ; andfor our own Reformation Bur- 
net*, I imagined it was your defire to 
have your courfe of ftudies comprifed in as 
harrow a compats as poffible. I have done 
fo. And when you have well ftudied thefe 
Ithink you will need few more onthe 
fame fubjeét. All I have here recom- 
mended to you are matter pieces in their 
feveral kinds. So that it would be worth 
your while to buy them. They alone will 

* I fuppofe the Bifhop here to have written 
Burnet, but it being under the feal, only the 
top of the letter B is vifible. 
SIR, 
OF the various kinds of literature, 
none affords more entertainment, 
and, generally ipeaking, none 1s more 
extenfively ufeful, than Biography. It 
is, in faét, effentially ferviceable to every 
other. Inthe memoirs of a perfon eml- 
nently confpicuous, either as a {cholar, 
a philofopher, a ftate{man, an artift, or 
as a warrior, the Biographer is necefla- 
rily -called upon, to give a view of his 
peculiar purfuit ; fo that while we are 
reading the life of the man, we become 
better acquainted with the kind of ftudy 
or employment for which he was diftins 
guifhed. It has, indeed, been a fault of 
too many life-writers, to neglect noticing 
the fcience, for which the fubjeé they 
have been treating was moft eminently 
confpicuous. Thus the Life of Chan- 
cellor Bacon, by Mallet, contains no 
illuftration of the philofophy of the pe- | 
riod, or of the improvements which that 
great man made in it. This made an 
acute critic obferve, with peculiar force, 
that if Mallet had written the Life of the 
Duke of Marlborough, as he was employ- 
ed to do, he would have omitted all no- 
tice of tactics, and eventhe ficges and 
battles in which that general was engaged. 
But the greateft defect to be lamented, 
is not fo much the manner of life-writ- 
ing, as the negle&t with which the me- 
mory of fo many deferving names has 
been treated. Numbers of very brilliant 
* This feems to have been intended to come 
in immediately after Stillingfleet’s irenicum * 
though it isin a diftant part of the margin, and 
is without any note of reference. 
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