If then the rapid progress of the Gospel, at its first outset in the world, indicates a success derived from the holy influence of the Spirit of God, shall we not derive a lesson from the circumstance, for the trial. of our own spirit, that we may know whether it co-operates with the Spirit of God; or, on the contrary, perversely grieves the blessed Comforter, and queuches his sacred light within us? Experience has informed us, by the early history of our religion, that where the grace of God freely operates, however rude and adverse the materials may be on which it is exercised, there extraordinary effects ensue, and the work of man, through the quickening power thus imparted, becomes, in a more exalted sense, the work of God, and cannot come to nought. Now, presumptuous and idle as the expectation would be, that the same divine grace should exert an influence on our conduct equally powerful and irresistible: (for such extraordinary and overpowering aid is no longer required in the present state of the Christian church, and if granted to any individual, would at once supersede that free-agency, which is in itself among the choicest gifts of God to man) still, unless our conduct bears some marks of the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, imparting to us a holy energy, and carrying us onward towards a perfection beyond ourselves, we may certainly decide, that we are not proceeding in the way which shall render our calling and election sure. The religion, which is from above, is a religion sharper than a twoedged sword, piercing to the inmost recesses of the heart, and searching the inward man. The man, who is deeply penetrated with it, can no longer be the mere man of the world; he proceeds not about his duties, as if they constituted a dull routine of necessary actions, which must be performed at any rate; but he is animated in their execution;

he feels them to be the injunctions of that Spirit, which has taught him by the word, and on whose promised assistance he ever relies with heartfelt confidence and joy. His actions accordingly are stamped with the impress of the divine grace, they are lively and energetic, they are done with a sublime view to the glory of God, which refines and purifies them from their earthly. dross, and in humble trust on the all-sufficient merits of his Redeemer, which gives them their value. Thus the word of God grows mightily in him and prevails; he proceeds from strength to strength, and from virtue to virtue, and in this continued. progress, aided by divine assistance, he becomes more and more the man of God, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Such then should be the religion which actuates us; if it is a religion gifted by the Holy Spirit, it will thus grow and prevail in us. We shall never.

rest in what we are at the present moment; we shall be ever advancing-forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those which are before, pressing toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

It is of little use, indeed, to inquire into the grounds of our faith, and to establish its evidence, unless the heart, at the same time, accompany the understanding, and unless we feel immediately prompted. by the spirit of our inquiry, to examine ourselves, with earnest prayer to God for our establishment and confirmation in the truth, how far we have adhered to the true profession, and acted up to those things wherein we have been instructed. It is our duty, accordingly, to make this appropriate use of the subject, which we have here considered, to employ it, as a means of leading our thoughts from the evidence, to the practice of our

Philipp. iii. 13.

religion-of inviting us, from the inquiry into the revelation as a mere matter of fact, to dwell, with the fervour of true piety, on the sacred doctrines contained in it, and those holy precepts of duty which it so abundantly delivers for our guidance in the path of righteousness. Powerfully as our religion is substantiated by its historical evidences, numberless as are the confirmations, which crowd to its support from every source of inquiry; it will still appear practically but a shadow or a dream, a vain pretension with out any force or vitality, unless we are, in ourselves, in our own immediate persons, an additional evidence to its truth. Be it our firm assurance, that, so long as we continue unsanctified by it, we give the most effectual denial to its truth, the deepest wound to its credit.

Let us not then throw the foulest scandal on the holy cause which we advocate. Let it not be said, that

our religion has every appearance of truth but that to which the eye of the inquirer naturally reverts, the conduct of those who profess it. But let it rather be said, Behold these Christians how they live; how purely-with what holy energyit cannot be that the religion which produces such fruits of righteousness, can be otherwise than a revelation from that Holy Being, whose word grows mightily and prevails. Let not the Holy Scriptures then be in our hands alone; but let their truths sink deeply into our hearts and lives, and be recorded there in living tablets. So will the word of So will God grow mightily in us. it more and more prevail over our earthly thoughts; and at length be the blessed means, through Christ, of raising us up to that everlasting source of all blessing and goodness, from whence it came forth.

H.

BISHOP BROUNRIG*. RALPH BROUNRIG was born at Ipswich, a town of good note, in Suffolk, Anno 1592; his parents of merchantly condition, of worthy reputation, and of very Christian conversation. When he was not many weeks old, God took away his earthly father, that himself might have the more tender and fatherly care of this (now) orphan, but most hopeful infant.

By the prudence of his pious mother, his youth and first years of reason were not lost or cast away (as the first broachings of a vessel) but (being hardly repaired if once

These Memoirs of the Bishop are compiled from his Funeral Sermon, preached by Dr. Gauden. London, 1660.

neglected) they were carefully improved for his breeding in all good learning, of which he was to a wonder in all ages of his life, not only capable, but so comprehensive, that he drank in learning not as narrowmouthed bottles (to which young learners are compared) by drops, but as a sponge by great draughts, even in his puerice or minority.

Indeed, when I would search for his minority, or the first source and fountain of that large fluency of eloquent and pious literature, with which he alway abounded, they are like the (fontes Nili) springs of Nilus, hardly to be found; he scarce had any minority (comparatively to others) except in growth and stature; for he was αἴεν ἀριστένων καὶ isipoxos anλar, as St. Paul says of

himself, above his equals or coetaneans; superior in abilities, when inferior in years: thus as he grew in age and stature, so he grew also in wisdom and favour both with God and man.

When the nurse of the grammar-school had fitted him for his mother the University, he was sent in his fourteenth year to Pembroke hall in Cambridge; there his modesty, pregnancy and piety soon invited preferment; he was made first scholar of the house, and after fellow, a little sooner than either his years or standing in rigour of statute permitted; but the College was impatient not to make sure of him, by grafting him firmly into that society, which had been famous for many excellent men, but for none more than for Ralph Brounrig, when Bachelor of Arts, when Master of Arts, when Bachelor of Divinity, when Doctor of Divinity, and when Bishop of Exeter; for as he fairly ascended every step or degree, so he was ever thought no less to adorn, than to deserve his advancements.

When first he appeared in public to give testimony of his abilities and proficiency, it is not to be expressed how sweet and welcome the very first productions of his most florid and fertile soul were, which had the fragrant blossoms of a most facetious and inoffensive wit; the fair leaves or ample ornaments of his most eloquent tongue; the most pleasant fruits of philosophy, history, poetry, and all sorts of inge. nious arts and sciences, well digested, accurately fitted to all occasions : these at length raised to divinity, well grounded on Scripture, and adorned by the study of antiquity, the fathers, councils, and histories of the Church, made him appear as one of the goodliest trees in the paradise or garden of God, the University and Church of England.

When King James (the most learned prince, and one of the most learned persons of his times) was REMEMBRANCER, No. 67.

pleased to honour the University of Cambridge by his presence, and to make the learned exercises of scholars the greatest and best part of his royal entertainment, this person, (then a young man) was one of those who were chosen by the University to adorn that reception of the king: the part he was to perform was Jocoserious, a mixture of philosophy with wit and oratory, which is there called the Prævaricator, as in Ox, ford the Terræ filius. This he discharged so amply every way that it was to the admiration more than the mirth of the King, and the other learned auditors; who rejoiced to see such a luxuriancy of wit was consistent with innocency, that jesting was confined to conveniency, and mirth married with that modesty which became the Muses: for he set before them such apples of gold in pictures of silver, so judicious an invention, so eloquent a judgment, and so solid an acuteness, that if he would rhetoricate facetiously to refresh their minds, no man did it more to their wonder and laughter; if he listed to dispute solidly, no man did it more to their astonishment and improvement; so that he was like the cedar and oak, no less admirable for the depth and spreading of his worth (the latitude and profoundness of his judicious knowledge) than for the procerity and height of his copious wit, and most harmless eloquence, which were still (as in nullius contumeliam) to no man's reproach or shame, so kept at a most severe and sacred distance from the mountain of holiness, the name of God, and true religion, which if petulant wit like a beast presume to touch, it is to be stoned to death.

I cannot but observe among his other learned and accurate perfor mances in public, that the subject and text, Phil. i. 29, was prophetic and preparatory to his aftersufferings, upon which he chose to preach his Latin sermon, when he took the degree of Bachelor in Di3 E

vinity, Vobis autem datum, &c. To you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake; which incomparably learned, eloquent and pious sermon he afterwards was to fulfil indeed, by suffering with Christian magnanimity, patience and charity, as well as he had accomplished it by preaching most excellently on it; thus quod docuit verbo, firmavit exemplo; he was to make his doctrine good by his practice, taking up the cross of Christ (as his crown) and following him.

"He was afterward preferred to be Prebend of the Collegiate Church of Eli*. This dignity he obtained by the favour and love of the then excellent Bishop of that seat, Dr. Felton, a very holy and good man. He had also a good living at Barlow, not far from Cambridge, where in a country village, this good scribe well-instructed for the kingdom of heaven, brought forth out of the good treasury of his heart things both old and new, the ancient mysteries and fundamental truths of the Christian Religion, in the modern and more accurate method of revived and reformed learning, condescending in his preaching and catechizing to ordinary capacities, and fitting his net to the fish he was to catch. He oft deplored the disuse and want of catechizing, as if there were no babes in the Church for milk, but all must be fed with strong meat which they cannot digest.

After this he was chosen master of Catharine Hallt; a small

Other accounts state that he was Chaplain to Bishop Morton, who, collated him to the Archdeaconry of Coventry, and afterwards to a Prebend at Durham.-(Life of Bishop Morton, Christ. Rem. Oct. 1823. Neal's Hist. Pur.)

"He was esteemed one of the greatest ornaments of his time to this seminary. He was one of those excellent men with whom Archbishop Tillotson cultivated an acquaintance at his first coming to London, and by whose preaching and example he formed himself. His sermons were not

basis or pedestal for so great a statue and coloss of learning, piety and prudence to stand upon; yet then and there this great lamp began to be set, and to shine in a sphere more proper for his parts, and proportionate to his lustre, who had a soul not fitted for a cottage, but a college; mor only for a college, but for palace; nor for a palace, so much as for a kingdom.

Nor was this change of his province an effect of his own ambitious stickling or seeking (as I have heard him tell it) but an influence of God's providence upon the minds of some worthy men, who were ashamed in behalf of the University and the age, not to see Dr. Brounrig preferred and employed in some way most proper and proportionate to his well-known abilities: and however this offer met at first with some clouds and oppositions from above, yet at last the good hand of God upon so good and deserving a person, cleared the heavens, and dispersed all the prejudices that some (then in great place) had misconceived against him.

When he had quiet possession of that mastership, it was wonderful to see, how the buildings, the revenues, the students and the studiousness of that place increased, by the care, counsel, prudence, diligence and fame of Dr. Brounrig, who had such an eye to all, that he over-saw none; frequenting the studies, and examining even younger scholars, that they might be encouraged both in learning and piety.

Fixed now, and rarely fitted for that academic way of life, his mother the University seemed even proud of such a son: his very presence and speech had a venerable and lovely majesty with them; his

exceeded by any published at that period, and they derived great advantage in the delivery, from the dignity of his person, and the justness of his elocution. Granger's History of England, vol. ii. p. 161. Svo." Note to Neal's History of the Puritans, vol.iv. p. 242.

looks were a law of modesty and gravity: he did oft bear, and discharged most usefully and acceptably to strangers and others the highest offices and honours of the University, both politic, as a magistrate, or justice of peace, in his being Vice-Chancellor; and literate, as a scholar; he made the (comitia convivia) commencement acts to be banquets and feasts; in which he, as Gamaliel, presided as father and moderator.

He kept up very much, as good learning and good manners, so the honour of orthodox divinity, and orderly conformity; he kept to the doctrine, worship, devotion, and government in the Church of England, which he would say he liked better and better, as he grew elder; and then best of all, when he saw the vipers of factions seizing upon her out of the fire of her tribulation, but not able to do her any harm, either as to confute her doctrines, or to condemn her constitutions with any shew of reason.

Neither in her prosperity, nor in her adversity, did he endure that any man great or small out of faction, pride, or popularity, or novelty, should worship or recede from its excellent orders: if any out of scruple and tenderness of conscience, was less satisfied with some things, no man had a more tender heart, or a gentler hand either to heal any little scratches, or to supple any wonted obstinacy, or to win any minds to the peace of the Church, who were capable, ingenuous and honest; he drew all by the silken cords of humanity and humility, reason and religion; not by the cart-ropes of rigour and imperiousness; he would convince, though he did not convert gainsayers, and if he could not persuade them, yet he would pity and pray for them.

His judgment as to the foundations and solemn administration of the reformed religion, settled in the Church of England (and so in other reformed churches which were for

the main consonant to it) was such that he was unmoveable, even to a martyrdom: never more offended (as I have sometimes heard him express his displeasure) than with those halters in opinion, a kind of ambiguous Protestants, that are afraid to own their discommunion and distance from the Church politic, or Court of Rome, even so far as they see by scripture and antiquity, that it hath evidently divorced from communion with the word of God, and institutions of Jesus Christ, and walks contrary to the judgment and practice of the primitive churches; to both which he always appealed in the grand concerns of religion; not allowing that policy which encroached upon truth and piety; though in matters of outward rites and ceremonies he allowed latitudes and liberty, without breach of charity; it was a maxim I have heard him use, that nothing was less to be stickled for or against than matters of ceremony, which were as shadows not substances of religion; as they did not build, so they could not burthen, if kept within their bounds, as was done in England's Reformation.

Yea, he had so far both pity and charity for those plain and honest-hearted people of the Roman communion, as either their errors (presumed by them to be truths) or their ignorance in some things not fundamental, did not betray them either to unbelief or self-presumption, or to final impenitence, or to immorality or uncharitableness. If there were hope to close the sad breaches of these western churches, no man was more able and willing to have poured balm into them: but he feared the gangrene of Jesuitism had festered and inflamed things to an incurableness, which he oft deplored.

As for the differences of other parties in some opinions which then began to grow very quick and warm in England, as well as the Netherlands, he seemed always most con.