BRINK
894
BROKESBY
well-known simple mineral substance, crystalline and fusible, but without a metallic basis. It is exceed- ingly inflammable, and when burning emits a peculiar suffocating smell. It is found in great abundance near volcanoes and mineral wells, more particularly near hot wells, and it is spread nearly oyer the whole earth. In Gen. xix, 24, 25, we are told that the cities of the plain were destroyed by a rain (or storm) of fire and brimstone. There is nothing incredible in this, even if we suppose natural agencies only were em- ployed in it. The soil of that region abounded with sulphur and bitumen ; and the kindling of such a mass of combustible materials through volcanic action or bv lightning from heaven, would cause a conflagration sufficient not only to engulf the cities, but also to de- stroy the surface of the plain, so that "the smoke of the country would go up as the smoke of a furnace," and the sea, rushing in, would convert the plain into a tract of waters. See Sodom. Small lumps of sul- phur are still found in many places on the shores of the Dead Sea. See Sulphur. The word brimstone is often figuratively used in the Scriptures (apparently with more or less reference to the above signal exam- ple) to denote punishment and destruction (Job xviii, 15; Isa. xxx, 33; xxxiv, 9; Deut. xxix, 23 ; Psa. xi, C; Ezek. xxxviii, 22). Whether the word is used lit- erally or not in the passages which describe the future and everlasting punishment of the wicked, we ma}- be sure that it expresses all which the human mind can conceive of excruciating torment (Rev. xiv, 10 ; xix, 20; xx, 10; xxi, 8). See Hell.
Brink, some Heb. words elsewhere rendered some- times "brim" (q. v.).
Brisbane, a town of Eastern Australia, New South Wales, and see of a bishop of the Church of England, which was erected in 1859. The town ceased to be a penal settlement in 1842, and has since become a thriv- ing place. The number of the clergy in 1859 was seven. See Clergy List for 18G0 (London, 1860, 8vo). See Australia.
Brison, Samuel, born in Frederick county, Vir- ginia, in 1797, entered the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1821, and labored in its ranks with great acceptance and success until his death at Baltimore, Oct. 13, 185:5. He was twice presiding elder : 1838-1841 of the Rockington district, and 1845- 1848 of the Northumberland district. His personal character was noble and elevated, and his ministry eminently acceptable and useful. — Minutes of Confer- ences, v, 331.
Bristol, in Gloucestershire, England, the seat of a bishopric' of the Church of England, founded by Henry VIII, who in 1542 converted the abbey-church of the Augustine monks into a cathedral, dividing the abbey lands between the bishop and the chapter, which he made to consist of a dean and six secular canons or prebendaries. The church was also served by an archdeacon, six minor canons, a deacon and subdeacon, six lay clerks, and six choristers. This see is now united to that of Gloucester, and the bishop is styled of Gloucester ami Bristol. The las£ bishop of Bristol, Dr. Allen, was transferred to Ely in 1836. The pres- ent bishop of Gloucester and Bristol (1861) is Charles Baring, consecrated 1856.
Britain. See England, Church of.
Broad Church. See England, Church of.
Broacldus, Andrew, a Baptist minister, was born in Caroline enmity, Virginia, in 1770. At eighteen, against his father's commands, he joined the Baptists and began to preach. Being ordained in 1791, he la- bored for the rest of his life (except six months in Richmond) in the counties of Caroline, King and
Qi n, and King William, in Virginia, though often
called to other and more important fields. In 1<S.'!2, and fur many years afterward, Mr. Broaddus was
chosen moderator of the Dover Association of Baptist Churches. He died Dec. 1, 1848. His publications are, A History of the Bible, 8vo ; A Catechism ; A Form of Church Discipline ; The Dover and Virginia Collections of Hymns ; and various Letters and Sermons.— Sprague, Annals, vi, 290; Jeter's Memoir.
Brocard, Jacopo, a native of Venice, who became a Protestant in the beginning of the sixteenth cen- tury. He was of a visionary turn, and sought to show that the principal events of his time had been predict- ed in the Bible. He labored to effect a union of all Protestant states, at the head of which his plan was to place Henry IV of France. He wrote a Mystical and Prophetical Interpretation of Genesis (Leyden, 1584, 4 to), and a similar Interpretatio of Leviticus (8vo). He died at Nuremberg in 1600. — Landon, Ecclesiastical Dictionary, ii, 416.
Brock, John, a Congregational minister, was a native of Stradbrook, Suffolk Co., Eng. His parents came to New England when he was about 17. He graduated at Harvard 1646. He preached at Rowley and the Isle of Shoals, which place he left to be ordain- ed pastor at Redding, 1662, where he lived until his death, June 18, 1688. He was eminent for piety and usefulness. — Sprague, Annals, i, 134.
Brodhead, Jacob, D.D., a minister of the Re- formed Dutch Church, was born at Marblehead, New York, in 1782. He graduated at Union College, where he became a tutor in 1802. In 1804 he became pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church at Rhinebeck, and was afterward successively one of the pastors of the Colle- giate Church of New York City in 1809, pastor of the First Reformed Dutch Church of Philadelphia, which he established in 1813, and of the church in Broome Street, New York, in 1826. In 1837 he became pastor of a church at Flatbush ; in 1841 he removed to Brook- lyn as minister of the Central Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of that city. He relinquished pastoral service in 1847, and died at Springfield, Mass., June 5th, 1855. Great tenderness of feeling characterized his preaching and his pastoral intercourse.