(2.) The ' Cabinet of Jewels' was reprinted in a fair-looking volume, which bears the imprint, ' Huntly : published by Duncan Matheson. 1SG0.' If we err not, this is the earnest Revivalist and Missionary of Crimean celebrity. All honour to him as such, and all honour to his motives in re-issuing the precious book. But it swarms, as does Brad- ley, with blunders and ' corrections ' (!) e. g., the very Errata carefully prefixed by the author — not to specify others — are left unchanged ; and so (to give a few specimens) we read 'fleshly joys' for Brooks's 'flashy joys' (page 22, line 4) ; saintly John Murcot of Dublin is transmogrified into 'John Marcol' (page 35, line 22) ; 'Assur's oppression' is spoken of instead of 'Asa's' (page 53, line 37) ; Rachel is made to cry out, 'Give me water' for 'Give me children' (page 75, line 2); and so throughout.
The same remarks, with but slight modification, are applicable to the many reprints of the 'Religious Tract Society' and other Publishers, who 'improve' and 'polish' into conformity with ideas of 'elegance' such as would have roused the rebuke of the fearless old preachers, who said what they meant, and meant to the letter, what they said.
I have, as in the case of Sibbes, very gratefully to record the kind help and sympathetic interest in our work shewn by many correspond- ents, sought and voluntary. I must specially name my excellent friend Joshua Wilson, Esq. of Nevil Park, Tunbridge Wells ; John Bruce, Esq., London, the accomplished editor and biographer of the new Aldine ' Cowper,' and many other historico-biographic works ; the Rev. R. Brook Aspland, M.A., London ; the Rectors of St Thomas Apostles, and other of the London city churches ; the Rectors aud Curates of Newbury and other Churches in different Counties ; the Rev. T. W. Davids, Colches- ter ; the authorities of the British Museum ; Williams' Library ; Guild- hall Library ; the Bodleian, Oxford ; the University Library, and various College Libraries, Cambridge ; the Rev. J. E. B. Mayor, M.A., Cambridge, and the late Charles H. Cooper, Esq., Town Clerk, Cam- bridge,— together with very many to whom I am indebted for letters in answer to (I fear) troublesomely minute inquiries. I owe thanks also to ' Notes and Queries,' and other Literary Journals.
1 For a conclusion of all by way of prefix ' — here in part appropriat- ing the words of Cawdrey and Palmer iu the Epistle to their Sabbatum Redivivum (1645. Pt. I.) — I 'have but one word or two more to say, and that by way of earnest entreaty.' These ' Works,' reader ! are full as the honey-comb of ' exceeding great and precious' Truth : no mere stately scholarliness, curious questioning, nice casuistry, windy phrases. Therefore, I pray ' That thou wilt do the Truth that right as to yield to and practise what thou art convinced of/ ' Consider ' what I say, ' and the Lord give thee and me understanding and grace in all things through Jesus Christ. So prays,
Alexander B. Grosart.
308 Upper Parliament Street, Liverpool, May 1866.
MEMOIR OF THOMAS BROOKS.
IT is long since one said in his own quaintly-pensive way, ' Who knows whether the best men be known, or whether there be not more remarkable persons forgot, than any that stand remembered in the known account of Time V Our endeavours towards elucidating the Lives of the Worthies embraced in these series of reprints, as well as the like experience of all who have sought to trace the footprints of shy, sequestered goodness, as distinguished from noisy and noised ' greatness/ so-called — satisfy us, that Sir Thomas Browne never wrote truer words.1 Light — that shoots its silver arrows unbrokenly across the abysses between the sun and our earth, and yet ruffles not tiniest feather of bird's wing, or drop of dew in flower-cup — is a more potent thing than lightning ; but, lacking the thunder-roar after it, in vulgar account is the weaker, albeit the thunder comes from no higher than the clouds. Similarly, the ' hidden ones ' — who are really the ' best men ' — have been in by far too many cases outblazoned by your creature of circumstance. It needs a wider and intenser sky than ours to show some stars ; and not until the ' new heavens ' dome the ' new earth ' will the truly ' great ' names shine excellingly. Richard Sibbes, with rare fineness of thought and felicitousness of wording, has ' weighed ' the two fames — and his ' counsel ' may fittingly come in here. ' Let us commit the fame and credit/ says he, ' of what we are or do to God. He will take care of that : let us take care to be and to do as we should, and then for noise and report, let it be good or ill as God will send it. . . . If we seek to be in the mouths of men, to dwell in the talk and speech of men, God will abhor us. . . . Therefore let us labour to lie good in secret. Christians should be as minerals, rich in the depth of the earth. That which is least seen is his (the Chris-
1 Works by Wilkin, iii. page 492 (4 vols. 8vo, 1836).
xxu MEMOIR OF THOMAS BROOKS.
tian a) riches. We should have our treasure deep ; for the discovery of it, we should be ready when we are called to it ; and for all other acci- dental things, let it fall out as God in his wisdom sees good. . . . God will be ca/reful enough to get us applause. . . . As much reputation as is fit for a man will follow him, in being and doing what he should. God will look to that. Therefore we should not set up sails to our own meditations, that unless we be carried with the wind of applause, to be becalmed, and not go a whit forward ; but we should be carried with the Spirit of God, and with a holy desire to serve God and our brethren, and to do all the good we can, and never care for the speeches of the world. . . . We shall have glory enough, and be known enough to devils, to angels, and men, ere long. Therefore, as Christ lived a hidden life — that is, He was not known what He was, that so He might work our salvation, so let us be content to be hidden ones. . . . There will be A resurrection OF credits, as well as of bodies. We'll have glory enough BY-AND-BY.'1