PAUL, the first bishop of Bristol, became a student in the university of Oxford about the year 1513, and in 1518 took the degree of bachelor of arts. He afterwards became a brother of the order called bonhomos: of which, after studying some time among the friars of St Austin (now Wadham college), he was elected provincial. In that station he lived many years; till at length King Henry VIII, being informed of his great knowledge in divinity and physic, made him his chaplain, and in 1542 appointed him to the new episcopal see of Bristol; but having in the reign of Edward VI taken a wife, he was, on the accession of Mary, deprived of his dignity, and spent the remainder of his life in a private station at Bristol, where he died in the year 1558, aged 68, and was buried on the north side of the choir of the cathedral. Wood says, that while he was a student at Oxford, he was numbered among the celebrated poets of that university; and Pitt gives him the character of a faithful Catholic, his want of chastity notwithstanding. He wrote, 1. An Exhortation to Margaret Burgess, wife to John Burgess, clothier, of King's Wood, in the county of Wilts. London, printed in the reign of Edward VI. 8vo. 2. Notes on the Psalms. 3. Treatise in praise of the cross. 4. Answer to certain queries concerning the abuse of the mass. Records, No. 25. 5. Dialogues between Christ and the Virgin Mary. 6. Treatise of slaves and curing remedies. 7. A little treatise called The Extirpation of Ignorancy. 8. Carmina diversa.

a term used for several shrubs of the same kind growing close together: thus we say, a furze-bush, bramble-bush, &c.

BUSH is sometimes used, in a more general sense, for any assemblage of thick branches interwoven and mixed together.

BUSH also denotes a coronated frame of wood hung out as a sign of taverns. It takes the denomination from hence, that, anciently, signs where wine was sold were bushes: chiefly of ivy, cypress, or the like plant, which keeps its verdure long. And hence the English proverb, "Good wine needs no bush."

Burning-Bush, that bush wherein the Lord appeared to Moses at the foot of Mount Horeb, as he was feeding his father-in-law's flocks.

As to the person that appeared in the bush, the text says, "That the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, out of the middle of the bush:" but whether it was a created angel, speaking in the person of God, or God himself, or (as the most received opinion is) Christ the son of God, has been matter of some controversy among the learned. Those who suppose it no more than an angel, seem to imply that it would be a diminution of the majesty of God, to appear upon every occasion, especially when he has such a number of celestial ministers, who may do the business as well. But considering that God is present everywhere, the notification of his presence by some outward sign in one determinate place (which is all we mean by his appearance), is in our conception less laborious (if any thing laborious could be conceived of God) than a delegation of angels upon every turn from heaven, and seems in the main to illustrate rather than debase the glory of his nature and existence. But however this be, it is plain that the angel here spoken of was no created being, from the whole context, and especially from his saying, "I am the Lord God, the Jehovah," &c. since this is not the language of angels, who are always known to express themselves in such humble terms as these, "I am sent from God; I am thy fellow servant," &c. It is a vain pretext to say, that an angel, as God's ambassador, may speak in God's name and person; for what ambassador of any prince ever yet said, "I am the king?" Since therefore no angel, without the guilt of blasphemy, could assume these titles; and since neither God the Father nor the Holy Ghost, are ever called by the name of angel, i.e. "messenger, or person sent," whereas God the Son is called by the prophet Malachi (chap. iii. 1), "The angel of the covenant:" it hence seems to follow, that this angel of the Lord was God the Son, who might very properly be called an angel, because in the fulness of time he was sent into the world in our flesh, as a messenger from God, and might therefore make these his temporary apparitions presages and forerunners, as it were, of his more solemn mission. The emblem of the burning-bush is used as the seal of the church of Scotland, with this motto: Nec tamen consumebatur; i.e. "Though burning, is never consumed."