on various accounts important and interesting Liographically. It fur- nishes certain facts which must be brought together. First of all, he must by this time have won a commanding positron, to have been appointed the ' Preacher' on so public and sorrowful an occasion. The honour came most unexpectedly, as was the giving of the Sermon to the public unintended by himself. On these two points in his 'Epistle' he thus speaks : • When I preached upon the subject of the saints' glorious appearance at the last, He that knows all hearts and thoughts, knows that I had not the least thought to put it to press. And that, partly, because the meditations following were not the meditations of a week, no, nor of two days, but of some few hours : I having but short warning to provide ; and other things falling in within the compass of that short time that did divert my thoughts some other ways. But mainly because of that little, little worth that is in it.' Then he con- tinues : ' And yet, Right Honourable, the intentions of some to "put it to the press in case I would not consent to have it printed — by which means truth and myself might have been co-partners in suffering — and the strong importunity of many precious souls, hath borne me down and subdued me to them.'1 Again: It is dedicated to the 'Right Honourable Thomas, Lord Fairfax, Lord General of all the Parliament's Forces in England,' as to a friend and familiar, to whom it is his pride to ' testify,' not only to himself, ' but to all the world/ his ' thankful remembrance and due acknowledgment' of his Lordship's 'undeserved respect' towards him.'2 In an age of venal flattery, the ' Epistles Dedica- tory' of Brooks are throughout simple, plain-spoken, searching, direct as an old Hebrew prophet's ' burden :' hence this language certainly meant what it said. But specially one allusion is at once a key to other personal references scattered up and down his writings, and an explanation of how the years preceding 1 640, as above, were occupied. Near the close of the Sermon, — and it is characteristic of the man, that only about a single page is devoted to Rainsborough himself, — he reveals 'service' with the lamented Commander. ' As for this thrice-honoured champion now in the dust: for his enjoyment of God, from my own experience, being with him both at sea and land, 1 have abundance of sweetness and satisfaction in my own spirit, which to me exceedingly sweetens so great a loss.'3 I have said that this ' testimony' furnishes a key to other references. I allude to incidental intimations of his having been abroad. Thus, in the 'Epistle Dedicatory' to his ' Precious Remedies,' as one of the reasons for its publication he gives this : ' I have many precious friends in several countries, who are not a little desirous that my pen may reach them, now my voice cannot. I have foiinerly been, by the help of the mighty God of Jacob, a weal- instru- ment of good to them, and cannot but hope and believe that the Lord 1 Page 12. 3 Page 1. 8 Page 22.
MEMOIR OF THOMAS BROOKS. xxix
will also bless those labours to them : they being in part the fruit of their desires and prayers, &C.1 Again : In his ' Unsearchable Riches,' he thus barbs one of his many fearless rebukes : ' If you do not give them [ministers of the Gospel] honourable countenance, Jews and Turks, Papists and Pagans, will in the great day of account rise up against you and condemn you. I could say "much of what I have observed in other nations and countries concerning this thing ; but I forbear. Should I speak what I have seen, many professors [professing Christians] might well blush.'2 Once more : ' In the ' Epistle Dedica- tory' to his 'Heaven on Earth/ there occur these personal reminiscences, tantalizing by their very suggestiveness : ' / have observed in some terrible storms I have been in, that the mariners' and the passengers' want of assurance, and of those other pearls of price that in this Treatise are presented to public view, hath caused their countenance to change/ &c. Then the ' Epistle' itself is addressed to ' The Right Honourable the Generals of the Fleets of the Commonwealth of England, and to those gallant Worthies (my much honoured friends), who, with the noble generals, have deeply jeoparded their lives unto many deaths, out of love to their country's good, and out of respect to the interest of Christ and the faithful people of this Commonwealth ;' and of these, — besides the parenthesis italicized in the foregoing, — he assigns as one reason for so ' tendering' his volume to them. ' Because you are my friends, and that cordial love and friendship which I have found from you hath stamped in my affections a very high valuation of you.' Once more : a little further on, he says, ' I have been some years at Sea, and through grace I can say that I would not exchange my Sea experiences for England's riches. I am not altogether ignorant of the troubles, trials, temptations, dangers, and deaths, that do attend you.' In a margin- note at the close he adds, ' Had I a purse suitable to my heart, not a poor, godly soldier or sailor in England, who carries his life in one hand, but should have one of these books in the other.'3 Further : In his ' London's Lamentations,' speaking of the wind, he observes : ' In some places of the world — where I have been — the motions of the wind are steady and constant, which mariners call their trade- wind.''1 Besides these notices in his writings, by his ' Will/ which will be found in its own place, he leaves a ' legacy' to ' Vice- Admiral Goodson's eldest daughter's son, that she had by her husband Captain Magger.'
Combining these various personal allusions, — which have hitherto been utterly overlooked, — it is plain that Brooks for 'some years' was 'at sea.' The question is, in what capacity ? A consideration of the facts in the
1 Our reprint, page 5. 3 2d edition, 1657, pp. 1, 4, 6, 27.
2 1657, 1st edition, page 320. 4 Part II. page 21.
XXX MEMOIR OF THOMAS BROOKS.