4 Calamy's 'Account,' p. 27; Continuation, pp. 28, 283. Calamy's 'Account' of Brooks lacks his usual carefulness. He describes ' St Margaret's, Fish-street hill 'as 'St Mary- Magdalen, Fish-street,' thus misreading 'St Mary' for 'St Magnus,' and also, if intending it, employing a name it did not bear until after the Fire in 1666, when being united thereto, the one name, 'St Magnus,' embraced both (Newcourt, as supra, p. 406). He has hereby misled Palmer (None. Memorial, vol. i. p. 150), who enters Brooks as 'ejected from ' St Mary, Fish-street. ' Further, Calamy had never seen ' Cases Considered and Resolved,' else he would not have made the following statements: 'About 1651 [1652-3] he was chosen by the majority of the Parishioners of St Mary Magdalen, Fish Street [i.e. St Margaret's] to be their minister; and he gathering a Church there in the con- gregational way, the rest of the Parish preferred a Petition against him to the Committee of ministers, and he published a Defence against their charges.' The 'Defence' in question is his 'Cases Considered and Resolved' (printed in our Appendix, A), and thereby it will be seen that it was not at all for the reason alleged he was opposed ; and we have also shewn above that he prevailed and entered on possession of the Parish. His Church in the ' congregational way' was not 'commenced' for fully ten years subsequent, viz. on the ' Ejectment ' of 1662, as told onward by us. The title-pages of Brooks's books issued from 1652 to 1662 attest that he was the 'clergyman' of St Margaret's up to 1662, and his subsequent title-pages similarly assert him to have been ' late ' or ' formerly thereof. Thus are Newcourt and Calamy alike, corrected and disproved. It is possible that while ' minister ' of ' Margarets,' Brooks, in common with other of his brethren, had also a more select auditory elsewhere, to whom he held the office of ' pastor :' but we have no lights on the subject. Be this as it may, the ' Defence ' had nothing to do with a church in the ' congregational way,' as Calamy affirms.
XXXIV MEMOIR OF THOMAS BROOKS.
does not appear whether he had any family ; but his wife — whose name was Martha — was indeed a 'help-meet,' — a woman of high-toned yet meekly tender principle, and all but the idol of her husband. She died in 1676, and her Funeral Sermon was preached by (probably) Dr John Collinges, of Norwich. Some extracts are added in our Appendix, from 'notes' which were no doubt furnished by Brooks himself.1
Thus self-placed, because conscience-placed, among the ' Ejected ' of 16G2, Brooks nevertheless remaining a Christ-anointed 'Preacher of the Gospel/ quietly continued his ministry within his Parish. Evidently, multitudes clave to their beloved and honoured Pastor, for to the praise of the laity be it said, the very life-blood of the different ' Churches ' vacated by the 'two thousand' flowed into the humbler 'chapels' and ' conventicles ' of the enforced Nonconformists. Brooks's ' chapel ' occupied a site near his old Church in Fish-street, called the ' Pave- ment,' Moorfields. The only memorial that remains of it is preserved in certain MSS. in the custody of the Williams Library, London — drawn up by a Rev. Josiah Thompson — but it consists of a mere blun- dering transcript of Calamy's blunders.2 He gives Brooks as the founder of the congregation, but dates it from 1GG0 or the Restoration, which is disproved by his preaching his ' Farewell Sermon ' in St Mar- garet's in 1662.3 Here our 'Confessor/ now growing old, continued his pristine unmistakeable, intense, powerful, and ' savoury ' exhibition of Christ and ' The Gospel ;' and as in brighter days, he issued volume upon volume, which bore the same characteristics and met with the same welcome as ' of old.' . For proof, in his address to the ' Reader ' prefixed to his 'Privy Key of Heaven' (1665), he was able to say grate- fully, as one of the reasons for again publishing, ' That favour, that good acceptance and fair quarter, that my other poor labours have found, not only in this Nation but in other countries also, hath put me upon putting pen to paper once more/4 Even in the year of sore trial — 1662 — he could say, 'My former poor labours and endeavours have been acceptable to some of all ranks and degrees, and they have been blest to some of all ranks and degrees ; and I have been encour- aged, whetted, and stirred up by some on all hands, once more to cast
1 See D. z See foot-note supra 4 p. xxxiii.
8 The Thompson MSS. give details of the after-history of Brooks's congregation. Reeve continued only a few years : the ' rage ' against Nonconformists flung him into Newgate with many others of the -godly:' he died in 1686, never having recovered from the effects of his unrighteous imprisonment. He was succeeded in 1686 by Richard Taylor, who died in 1717 ; Mr Hall followed in 1718, and dmd in 1762 ; and he again was succeeded by Dr John Conder, grandfather, I believe, of the amiable poet Josiah Cornier. Other particulars may be gleaned, but these must suffice : except perhaps this small bit of fact, viz., that the Rev. James Spong of London, whose congregation claims to represent Brooks' — has in his possession the Communion ' flagons ' or cups, bearing an inscription to the effect that they were a gift to the church of Mr Thomas Brooks.'
MEMOIR OF THOMAS BROOKS. XXXV