ever so heavy upon any nation, as when it turns its own tyrant, and falls under a popular self-oppression, by inordinate and immoderate affectations of liberty, and oppositions to legal and settled sovereignty, as was evident in the passionate apostacy of the ten tribes from David's house, pretending Solomon's exactions; when it is better to be oppressed by one wise prince, than to be left to popular liberties, which ruin Church and State.

However being a father of the Church, he thought it became him to be a very dutiful and obedient son to the king, as father of his country in England, by a law that invested him in a sovereignty or monarchy, subject to no power on earth.

This he judged the safest way as to inward and outward peace, in conscience and prudence, for men and Christians, for Church and State. Accordingly, when O. P. with some shew of respect to him, demanded his judgment in some public affairs, then at a nonplus; his Lordship with his wonted gravity and freedom replied, "My Lord, the best counsel I can give you is that of our Saviour, Render unto Cæsar the things that are Casar's, and unto God the things that are God's:" with which free answer O. P. rested rather silenced than satisfied.

When he had accepted to be a Bishop (I think he had sinned if he refused God's call to that office and honour, being so able, so worthy, and so willing to have done good as in all times, so in such a time as that was) the amphibian ministers, who could live in Presbytery or Episcopacy, as their interest led them, when they saw the northern tempest strong, the tide to turn, and this good Bishop with others, not likely to enjoy the estates and honours of their bishoprics; then, O then, began some of those preachers, whose

Oliver the Protector.

darling, crown and triumph, whose almost adoration and idol, Dr. Brounrig had sometimes been, now they began to withdraw from him, to keep aloof and at distance, to look as strangers on him, and to be either afraid or ashamed to appear before him; such a reproach and maul his very presence, constancy, and gravity were to their popular and timeserving inconstancies, that many became his enemies, because he persevered in the truth they once asserted, and had now deserted; by the con futation and conversion which tumults and arms had made on their spirits, more than any new reasons and arguments.

Others were so peevish and spiteful against him (not as Dr. Brounrig, but as an unfortunate Bishop) that to revenge their own sin and folly on their betters, they,after the Lystrian levity, endeavoured to stone him and other Bishops, whom they once had reverenced as gods; consenting to, and applauding his expulsion out of the House of Lords, out of the College and University, yea, and to his deposition (as much as human power and malice could) from his episcopal office and authority, which yet he failed not, while he lived (as he had power and opportunity) to discharge.

If he had as a Bishop met with better times, as to Christianity; or worse, as to heathenish barbarity, so as to have shined fully and steadily in one of those golden candlesticks of the Church, for which he was fitted; I make no doubt but the most benign influence of so able, so affable, so amiable, so conscientious, so complete a Bishop, would have wrought as great effects in any Diocese where he lived, as Gregorius Thaumaturgus is said to have done in his Scythian Bishopric; where when he came first to them, he found but fifteen Christians, when he left them, he left but so many heathens or infidels amongst them: Bishop Brounrig was as likely as any man to have been a Thaumatur

gus, to have wrought miracles in this age, if they had been so just, moderate and wise, as to have made use of his oracular wisdom, in grand and public concerns, or to have trusted to the counsels of such scholars as much as of soldiers.

As to the esteem he had on all hands, I myself have oft heard (as others so) Mr. John Pim (who was of some kindred to this Bishop) not only highly commend him, but even glory and boast of him, so did M. Marshal and those of his Juncto, while conformity kept them warm; till growing wanton, planetary, and eccentric from their former judgment and practice (for many years), they turned the tables, and withdrew their stakes; these indeed for reasons of state, playing against Bishops and Episcopacy; while the other, always like himself, and as became Bishop Brounrig, for conscience sake stood constant to assert it, as I know this reverend Prelate did ever to his last; not from any vain glory, pertinacy, pride, or humour of revenge (he was far remote from any such poisons,) but from eternal and immutable principles of reason and religion, of order, polity and peace in Church and State, also from experience of the blessings by and under Episcopacy, which this and other churches had enjoyed; and the either defects or miseries for want of it: much insisting on that due veneration which posterity and particular churches owe to the piety, prudence and fidelity of the Catholic Church in primitive times, where churches no more thrived or lived without Bishops, as presidents authoritative among, and above Presbyters, than Christians lived without their heads or hearts.

* "He was consulted by Mr. Baxter, and others, in several points of controversy, and was indeed a most humble Christian, and very patient under most severe fits of the stone, which were very acute and tedious for some time before his death."-(Neal's Hist. of the Puritans, Vol.iv. p. 244.)

an

This reverend Bishop was indeed every way a most apt, ample and accomplished person for great aud public affairs; nor was he ever cut out for small work, having so great and good a soul; he was an excellent scholar, an admirable orator, acute disputant, a pathetic preacher, an unspotted liver, a prudent goveruor, full of judgment, courage, constancy and impartiality; an useful good man (καλοκαγαθός) κ grave and great Divine, a gracious and sincere Christian, as well as venerable Bishop; conscientious in all he did, and humble with all his endowments, not less full of eminent graces than excellent gifts; indeed every way such a man and such a Bishop, as no Christian Church in any age but ours; nor ours, in any age but this, would have laid aside; being a preacher and professor of the same reformed faith and confession of doctrine; nor would any times but ours have forced by popu lar storms and tempests a goodly ship fraught with such rich treasures of worth and wisdom (which are seldom embarked or laden in one bottom) to come aground, aud to lie still in some obscure (yet scarce safe) corners and creeks, either for fear of plebeian and military hurricanes ;or for want of fit sails, and fair winds or tides to bring it forth to the commerce and enriching of the world in learning, religion, and a most imitable example.

Not that this grave and grand personage, when thus forced to retire, was useless to those that were worthy of him, and knew how to value and use him, either as a Bishop or as a Divine, or a counsellor, or a comforter, or a friend; nor were any people more to be envied, in my judgment, than those that were hap py (as Solomon's domestics) to enjoy him in any constant receptions or addresses; as some of his friends and many others oft did to their great content; and none either more welcomly or more deservedly than

the liberal and noble soul of Mr.

Thomas Rich, Esq. of Sunning, in Berkshire; of whose ready heart and large hand to works of charity, I could here give a particular and great account upon my motion to him, but that his modesty hath oft severely forbad me to speak of it, being satisfied with God's reward, which I pray he and his may never want. It is enough to say of that worthy citizen, that generous gentleman and most charitable Christian, that his name deserves to be with honour thus registered and engraven to all posterity, that he was the special friend of Bishop Brounrig: an honour as great and deserved, as that which the Lord Brook affected to make his monument remarkable to after ages, by his inscribing, "And Friend to Sir Philip Sydney."

Of this Bishop's excellent endowments and manners, I may say as Suetonius doth of Augustus's looks, Forma per omnes ætatum gradus constanti; he was not only in all ages a very comely person, but did all things at all times steadily and handsomely: the indignities and afflictions which were cast upon him by the torrent of times, (as a Bishop, and counter biassed to them) yet as a rock in the sea, or a brazen wall, he endured them unmoved, unmolested; his constant and judicious wisdom remained with him; while he saw factious and giddy spirits wasting themselves, while they foamed out their own shame, he enjoyed a bright and unblemished fame, with a good conscience, having had no hand in the mutation or misery of Church or State.

When he could not have common equity from others, yet he exacted Christian charity from himself to others; he would give de modico, almost de nihilo; of that little meal and oil that was left him, or by others supplied to him; and if he could not give de suo, yet he would de se, of his paternal prayers and benedictive comprecations; nor was any man more exact and faithful in the distributing other men's charities

committed to him, as some good Obadiahs did of later years; when even among the prophets of the Lord, good ministers, there were so many pitiful objects of charity, to the joy and triumph of the Jesuits and Roman priests; as much as to the reproach and shame of the reformed profession which some pretend to, without equity or charity.

When the storms of the times had stripped him of all public emoluments, as to the revenues and perquisites of his Bishopric; yet æquiore animo sua damna pertulit, quam alii sua lucra; he shewed a greater mind in bearing his losses, than others did in getting their gains; yea he was more deeply affected for the wickedness of those that lay under the real guilt, or vehement and just suspicion of so foul a sin as sacrilege, than for the loss he sustained by it; he was prone to say cheerfully, If others had more right to those lands and houses than the Bishops and other churchmen, in God's name let them take them; but they that either alienated, or bought or sold them, had need to have a better title than either the present proprietors and possessors had by law, or the Church and State in equity, or the King by sovereignty, or the donors by their deeds, or God, as lord paramount, to whose glory they were devoted.

I once heard him (after his wonted smiling, yet venerable manner of speaking) profess that he took it a little unkindly, that those lords and gentlemen (who heretofore had professed an ambition to see him a Bishop, and did with great courtship congratulate his coming to sit in the House of Lords) not only that they should be great sticklers to destroy all Bishops as to their honour and estates, but that they would not now so much as let him have their committee power to gather in the arrears of his Bishopric, which were due to him before the direption and depredation, which arrears he said were now in those private men's

hands, who he thought had less right to them, and less need of them than himself. But he found the predominant genius of the times was such, that instead of letting Bishops live in a capacity to be given to hospitality, they reduced them to the necessity of getting into some hospitals for their relief.

Thus while the secular militia, while colonels and captains ride triumphantly on horses and in chariots, get great salaries and good lands, this eminent Bishop, who was worthy to be among the chieftains and prime rulers or leaders of the Church, was (with all other of his order) reduced from his chariot and horses, to go on foot, as far as his legs would carry him; or to borrow conveniences of his friends, who were better provided for easy conveyance of him.

He had no charge for many years before he died but himself and a servant (who was worthy to wait on such a master): child he never had any, though the husband of one wife; once married for a little while to a worthy gentlewoman, choosing rather chaste and honourable marriage, at those years, than to affect such a celibacy as was less consistent with sanctity; from which chastity is in no condition of life single or social to be separated. His great grief for the loss of such a blessing at those years (when about forty) shewed his great value of it. I have heard it from his constant friend and long associate (Dr. Edward Young, which relation is character enough of his worth) that it was a great part of his friendly employment at that time (flagrante dolore) to be as an angel to comfort Dr. Brounrig in that solitude and sadness. For great and generous souls (though gracious) yet are apt to conceive vehement sorrows; being as ships of burthen, they launch not but in seas of some depth, that is, they love not but where extraordinary merit and virtue engageth them; which being exposed to the common storms

of mortality, must needs toss them with the greater waves; nor can they always either cast anchor or suddenly make their port as they would.

I have heard from good hands a passage not unworthy of such a pair, which I think not amiss to relate; his wife brought him a very handsome estate in money, and being consumptionary, and so likely to die without child, she desired him to give her leave to give away by will as she pleased to her friends some part of that estate she brought him ; he most cheerfully granted her desire (if she would to the half or all her estate); she having made this essay of his noble miud, told him with thanks and tears, that she gave all she had to him as her best friend, and one that deserved much more than she could give him; soon after she left him and all sublunary comforts.

After times shewed him what a providence it was by so ingenuous a way to have something of estate cast in to defend himself against the after-injuries and pressures of life, besides learning and merit; for that estate (I think) was his best reserve; though the distress of times had shrewdly wire-drawn that also before he died.

Although he had that magazine of classic and authentic learning, which readily furnished him to speak on the sudden of all things (apté, ornaté, copiosé) amply, and handsomely, yet as to his sacred oratory, or public preaching; he was very elaborate and exact, not only in reading and meditating, but in complete writing of his Sermons . even to his last; so loth was he to do that work of God negligently: I hope the world may be happy to see those accurate pieces which passed his own polishing and perfective hand; though these printed, must needs lose of the life they had when spoken by him, who taught as one having authority; and not as popular parasites, or plebeian scribes;