Two MS. pages from the diary of John Collett Ryland, Sept. 5-9, 1746.

Business for the Month September:

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

Concordance—M.r Henry on Pray.r[3] & Clark. Promises[4]

2. Mr Henry Exposit.n on Genesis Ch. VIII.[5]

3. Mr Gill on Matthew—Chap. VII &c[6]

4. Mr Charnock on God’s Holiness. Goodness. Dominon. Patience &  Providence—[7]

5. Boylean Lectures. 1.st Vol. Folio.[8]

6. Proceed in ye New Adversaria—& fill up more of ye Old one[9]

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

8. Go to Evesh. Bourt.—& Abing:[10]

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

10. Read the Husbandman’s Calling—by M.r Steele[11]

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.[12]

—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[13]

2. Scheme of Rhetoric from M.r Holmes[14]

3. Ames’s Cases of Conscience.—translated part.[15]

Saturday Sep.r 6—1746—

Spent chiefly with M.r Benjn Stennett.—[16]

—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[17]

2. Spent wth M.r St. & in reading D.r Mathers Manuduct:[18]

Tuesday Sep.9—

1. Serm: xxxv—Imitation of Christ in his Example and Life—1 Jn 2: 6— M.r Hubbard[19]

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.—[20]

Wrote Letters to Bristol & Transcribed Hints on Cycloped.—

Text: Eng. MS. 861, f. 48, JRULM. 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. For identifications of the works mentioned above, see Timothy Whelan, ed., Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Baptist History Series, Mercer University Press, 2009).