had for Master that one of all the heads of Colleges, ' whose presence,' to quote the words of an unchallengeable authority — Professor David Masson — ' was the most impressive.'1 ' He was,' says Fuller — whose Chiuvhism never for a moment hindered his generous recognition of worth and wit in whomsoever found — 'the greatest pupil-monger in England in man's memory, having sixteen fellow-commoners, most heirs to fair estates, admitted in one year at Queen's College. As William the Popular of Nassau was said to have won a subject from the King of Spain to his own party every time he put off his hat, so was it commonly said in the College, that every time when Master Preston plucked off his hat to Dr Davenant, the College master, he gained a chamber or study for one of his pupils.'2 He was pre-eminently a Puritan in its grandest and — at the time — reproached sense. Chosen 1 Master' of Emanuel in 1622, he carried most of his pupils with him from Queen's thither ; and as its Head, kept up the reputation of that House as the most Puritanical in the University. His ' Life ' belongs to History : it jet remains unwritten, as, shame to Cambridge, his price- L< ss Works remain to this day uncollected and inedited.3 It was no com- mon advantage to our student to have been placed under such a 'Master'; and his margin-references to ' Dr Preston,' and the same to ' Dr Sibbes,' together with occasional ' sayings' of the latter not met with elsewhere, assure us that he sat reverently at their feet.4 His fellow-students at ' Emanuel' — assuming that he 'proceeded' through the ordinary curri- culum of study — included Thomas Shepard, and John Cotton, and Thomas Hooker — afterwards the famous trio of New England ' Divines,' and spiritually the founders and fathers of Massachusetts. To the same College, earlier and later, belonged the holy Bedell, the many-sided Joseph Hall, the large -though ted Ralph Cudworth, and these still lustrous Puritan ' Worthies' — Samuel Crooke, John Yates, John Stough- ton, Ezekiel Culvervvell, Stephen Marshall, Samuel Hudson, Nathanael Ward.5 Elsewhere we have sketched his contemporaries in the Uni- versity. Beginning with that name which overshadows all the rest — John Milton — the roll ends with Waller and Randolph.6
From the reasons assigned, it is our hap and mishap not to be able to
1 Masson as before, p. 93.
* Fuller's Worthies: Northamptonshire; and Church History, sub anno, 1628 ; and also (from Masson as supra) : Wood's Fasti, i. 333 : Neal's History of the Puritans, ii. l$3,etseq. Fuller was himself a student of Queen's before Preston had left it for Emanuel. On the whole position and subject of the Puritans, see that invaluable trans- Atlantic contribution to history, ' The Puritans : or the Church, Court, and Parliament of Eng- land, during the reigns of Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth. By Samuel Hopkins. 3 vols. 8vo. (Boston, 1859-61). 3 See our Memoir of Sibbes, vol. ii. pp. 51, 52, et alibi.
* See our Index, sub-nominibus, for these references.
6 Cf. Brook's ' Lives of the Puritans,' sub nominibus; also Dr Sprague's ' Auuals' of the American Pulpit, ditto.
0 See our Memoir of Sibbes as before, pp. 52, 53, et alibi.
MEMOIR OF THOMAS BROOKS. XXvii
trace the ' progress' of Brooks. In all likelihood, he ' proceeded ' from degree to degree, although in common with other of the Puritans, he places none on his title-pages, preferring the nobler designation, 'Preacher of the Gospel,' or ' Preacher of the Word.' Of his entire University course we have an incidental notice in one of those rare snatches of autobiography which occur in his writings. It occurs in a tractate, of which more anon, and runs thus : ' For a close of this branch. . . . I shall only say this : being compelled thereunto by some — that I do believe that I have spent more money at the University, and in helps to learning, than several of these petitioners are worth, though haply I have not been such a proficient as those that have spent less.' He adds : ' I am a lover of the tongues, and do by daily experience find, that knowledge in the original tongues is no small help for the understanding of Scripture,' &C.1
When Brooks left the University we cannot tell. The periods of residence and attendance varied ; some being shorter and others longer. If he remained, as Sibbes and Gouge his contemporaries did, from nine to twelve years, adding the former to 1625, we are advanced to 1634 ; by the latter to 1637. He must have been ' licensed' or ' ordained' as a ' Preacher of the Gospel' by 1640 at latest. For in the tractate already quoted [' Cases Considered and Resolved'], which is dated 1653, he says, ' I am compelled to tell you that I have, by the gracious assist- ance of God, preached publicly, the Gospel, above these thirteen years ; and the greatest part of those years I have spent in preaching the word in London, where God hath given me many precious seals of my ministry, which are now my comfort, and in the day of Christ will be my crown.'2 At this time, too, he must have been involved in many labours ; for in his ' Epistle' to ' the conscientious reader,' he thus appeals in regard to ' errata/ 'I desire that thou wouldst cast a mantle of love over the mistakes of the Printer, I having no opportunity to wait on the press, by reason of my many engagements other ways, 's How one wishes that the good man had had a little more communica- tive egotism, and confided to us when and where, before coming to London, and in London, he had 'preached the Word!' By 1648 he was Preacher of the Gospel at Thomas Apostles, London : such being his designation in the title-page of his first publication, viz., his SermoD, entitled ' The Glorious Day of the Saints' Appearance, calling for a glorious conversation from all Believers,' which was ' delivered .... at the interment of the corpse of that renowned Commander, Colonel Thomas Painsborough, who was treacherously murdered at Doncaster, October 29. 1648, and honourably interred the 14th of November following, in the Chapel at Wapping, near London.' This ' Sermon' is
1 ' Cases Considered and Resolved,' given in extenso in Appendix A to this Introduction.
2 As before, page 8, ' a short Preamble.' 3 Ibid., page 6.
XXV111 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BROOKS.