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GOV. BRADFORD'S MEMOIR

OF

ELDER BREWSTER.

CHAPTER XXVII.

MEMOIR OF ELDER WILLIAM BREWSTER.1

XXVII.

April.

Now followeth that which was matter of great sad- CHAP. ness and mourning unto this Church. About the 16th of April,2 in this year, died their reverend Elder,3 1644. our dear and loving friend, Mr. WILLIAM BREWSTER; 16. a man that had done and suffered much for the Lord Jesus and the Gospel's sake, and had borne his part in weal and wo with this poor persecuted Church about thirty-six years in England, Holland, and in this wilderness, and done the Lord and them faithful service in his place and calling; and notwithstanding the many troubles and sorrows he passed through, the Lord upheld him to a great age. He was near four

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Hist. Mass. ii. 460, inserts about a
page of it from Bradford's MS. His-
tory. There can be no doubt that
the whole Memoir proceeded from
the pen of Bradford, and that Mor-
ton, in this as in other cases, was a
mere copyist.

Burk, in his Hist. of Virginia,
i. 214, makes Brewster the military
as well as the spiritual leader of
the Pilgrims, confounding him with
Standish.

'Neal, in his Hist. of New England, i. 85, errs in calling him John ; an error which is repeated by the authors of the Mod. Univ. Hist. xxxix. 271.

462

XXVII.

MEMOIR OF ELDER BREWSTER.

CHAP. Score years of age (if not all out) when he died. He had this blessing added by the Lord to all the rest, to die in his bed, in peace, amongst the midst of his friends, who mourned and wept over him, and ministered what help and comfort they could unto him, and he again recomforted them whilst he could. Ilis sickness was not long. Until the last day thereof he did not wholly keep his bed. His speech continued until somewhat more than half a day before his death, and then failed him; and about nine or ten of the clock that evening he died, without any pang at all. A few hours before he drew his breath short, and some few minutes before his last he drew his breath long, as a man fallen into a sound sleep, without any pangs or gaspings, and so sweetly departed this life unto a better.

1.5-7.

I would now demand of any what he was the worse for any former sufferings. What do I say? The worse? Nay, surely he was the better, and they now 2 Thess. add to his honor. "It is a manifest token," saith the Apostle," of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer; sccing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven 1 Peter with his mighty angels; " and " If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of God and of glory resteth upon you." What though he wanted the riches and pleasures of the world in his Prov life, and pompous monuments at his funeral, yet the memorial of the just shall be blessed when the name of the wicked shall rot.

iv. 14.

x. 7.

BREWSTER UNDER SECRETARY DAVISON.

463 I should say something of his life, if to say a little CHAP. were not worse than to be silent. But I cannot wholly forbear, though haply more may be done hereafter.

XXVII.

After he had attained some learning, viz. the knowledge of the Latin tongue and some insight into the Greek, and spent some small time at Cambridge, and then being first scasoned with the seeds of grace and virtue, he went to the Court, and served that religious and godly gentleman, Mr. Davison,' divers years, when he was Secretary of State; who found him so discreet and faithful, as he trusted him above all other that were about him, and only employed him in matters of greatest trust and secrecy. He esteemed him rather as a son than a servant, and for his wisdom and godliness, in private, he would converse with him more like a familiar than a master. He attended his master when he was sent in ambassage by the Queen into the Low Countries, (in the Earl of Leicester's time,) as 1585. for other weighty affairs of State, so to receive possession of the cautionary towns; and in token and sign

The unfortunate William Davison, who fell a victim to Queen Elizabeth's duplicity and statecraft, was a person of great worth and ability. The Earl of Essex, in a letter to King James, April 18, 1587, interceding in his behalf, speaks of him as "beloved of the best and most religious of this land. His sufficiency in council and matters of state is such, as the Queen herself confesseth in her kingdom she hath not such another; his virtue, religion, and worth in all degrees are of the world taken to be so great, as no man in his good fortune hath had more general love than this gentleman in his disgrace; " and Lord Burleigh, in a petition to Queen Elizabeth, February 13, 1586, writes, "I know

not a man in the land so furnished
universally for the place he had,
neither know I any that can come
near him." See Supplement to
the Cabala, p. 23; Strype's An-
nals, iii. 373.

2 Brewster had for a colleague
in office under Davison, George
Cranmer, the pupil and friend of
the judicious Hooker. See Wal-
ton's Lives, p. 179, (Major's ed.)
Judge Davis justly remarks that
"there seems to have been a simi-
larity of character between Mr.
Brewster and his patron." Mor-
ton's Memorial, p. 221.

In 1584, when Elizabeth entered into a league with the United Provinces, and advanced money to enable them to maintain their independence of Spain, her rival in

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