BROWN

BROWN (Simon), a dissenting minister, whose uncommon talents and singular misfortunes entitle him justly to a place in this work, was born at Shepton Mallet in Somersetshire, 1680. Grounded and excelling in grammatical learning, he early became qualified for the ministry, and actually began to preach before he was twenty. He was first called to be a pastor at Portsmouth, and afterwards removed to the Old Jewry, where he was admired and esteemed for a number of years. But the death of his wife and only son, which happened in 1723, affected him so as to deprive him of his reason; and he became from that time lost to himself, to his family, and to the world; his congregation at the Old Jewry, in expectation of his recovery, delayed for some time to fill his post; yet at length all hopes were over, and Mr Samuel Chandler was appointed to succeed him in 1725. This double misfortune affected him at first in a manner little different from distraction, but afterwards sunk him into a settled melancholy. He quitted the duties of his function, and would not be persuaded to join in any act of worship, public or private. Being urged by his friends for a reason of this extraordinary change, at which they expressed the utmost grief and astonishment, he told them, after much importunity, that "he had fallen under the sensible displeasure of God, who had caused his rational soul gradually to perish, and left him only an animal life in common with brutes: that, though he retained the human shape, and the faculty of speaking in a manner that appeared to others rational, he had all the

while no more notion of what he said than a parrot; that it was therefore profane in him to pray, and incongruous to be present at the prayers of others;" and, very consistently with this, he considered himself no longer as a moral agent, or subject of either reward or punishment. In this way of thinking and talking he unalterably and obstinately persisted to the end of his life; though he afterwards suffered, and even requested, prayers to be made for him. Some time after his secession from the Old Jewry, he retired to Shepton Mallet, his native place; and though in this retirement he was perpetually contending that his powers of reason and imagination were gone, yet he was as constantly exerting both with much activity and vigour. He amused himself sometimes with translating parts of the ancient Greek and Latin poets into English verse: he composed little pieces for the use of children; An English Grammar and Spelling Book; An Abstract of the Scripture-History, and A Collection of Fables, both in metre; and with much learning he brought together into a short compass all the Themata of the Greek and Latin tongues, and also compiled a Dictionary to each of those works, in order to render the learning of both these languages more easy and compendious. Of these performances none have been made public. But what showed the strength and vigour of his understanding, while he was daily bemoaning the loss of it, were two works composed during the two last years of his life, in defence of Christianity, against Woolston and Tindal. He wrote an answer to Woolston's fifth Discourse on the Miracles of our Saviour, entitled, A fit rebuke for a ludicrous Infidel, with a preface concerning the prosecution of such writers by the civil power. The preface contains a vigorous plea for liberty, and is strongly against prosecutions in matters of religion; and in the Answer, Woolston is as well managed as he was by any of his refuters, and more in his own way too. His book against Tindal was called, A Defence of the Religion of Nature and the Christian Revelation, against the defective account of the one and the exceptions against the other, in a book entitled, Christianity as old as the Creation; and it is allowed to be as good a one as that controversy produced. He intended to dedicate it to queen Caroline; but as the unhappy state of his mind appeared in the dedication, some of his friends very wisely suppressed it, as sure to defeat the use and intent of his work. The copy however was preserved, and is subjoined in the note (A), as much too great a curiosity to be suppressed. The above pieces were published.

(A) Madam, Of all the extraordinary things that have been rendered to your royal hands since your first happy arrival in Britain, it may be boldly said, what now bespeaks your majesty's acceptance is the chief. Not in itself indeed: it is a trifle unworthy your exalted rank, and what will hardly prove an entertaining amusement to one of your majesty's deep penetration, exact judgment, and fine taste; but on account of the author, who is the first being of the kind, and yet without a name. He was once a man, and of some little name; but of no worth, as his present unparalleled case makes but too manifest: for, by the immediate hand of an avenging God, his very thinking substance has for more than seven years been continually waiting away, till it is wholly perished out of him, if it be not utterly come to nothing. None, no, not the least remembrance of its very ruins remains; not the shadow of an idea is left; nor any sense, so much as one single one, perfect or imperfect, whole or diminished, ever did appear to a mind within him, or was perceived by it. Such a present from such a thing, however worthless in itself, may not be wholly unacceptable to your majesty, the author being such as history cannot parallel; and if the fact, which is real, and no fiction or wrong conceit, obtains credit,

Brown. ed by Mr, afterwards Dr W. Harris, who, in an advertisement to the reader, recommends the afflicted case of the author, under a deep and peculiar melancholy, to the compassion and prayers of all his friends, and every serious Christian. Mr Brown survived the publication of this last work a very short time. A complication of distempers, contracted by his sedentary life (for he could not be prevailed on to refresh himself with air and exercise), brought on a mortification, which put a period to his labours and sorrows about the latter end of 1732. He was unquestionably a man of uncommon abilities and learning: his management of Woolston showed him to have also vivacity and wit: and, notwithstanding that strange conceit which possessed him, it is remarkable that he never appeared feeble or absurd, except when the object of his frenzy was before him. Besides the two pieces above mentioned, and before he was ill, he had published some single Sermons, together with a Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs. He left several daughters.