B R O 



quentiy fpent t6 hours out of tlie 24 at his books. In 

 icSfJ, he publiflied a work, the refiilt of much previous la- 

 bour, entitled, " The Confent of Scriptures ;" which is a 

 kind of Scripture chronology and genealogies. In this 

 work he zealouily maintains the incorruptiiels of the facred 

 text, both of the Old and New Tellament ; and he contends, 

 that the original toncrue of Adam and Eve continued un- 

 clianged till the Babylonilh captivity, that the charaders 

 :ti-.d points are the fame with thofe written by God on the 

 W^o tables, and that tlie facred tongues were changed in the 

 lime of the prophet Daniel ; but tliat the fcnfe of the ori- 

 ginal tongue is prefcrved by tlie LXX. and the New Tefta- 

 nient. Tlie chief of the Maforites, according to this writer, 

 was Ezra; and they have kept the letters ^and words with 

 £uch care, that none of them can ptri(h. This work, which 

 excited great attention, was warmly oppofed by Dr. Rey- 

 nolds of Oxford ; and the author thought the controvtrrfy 

 of fuch importance, that he wiihed to have it fettled by pub- 

 lic authority. For explaining his doftrine, Mr. Brouglitoa 

 inflituted weekly kaures in London ; and they were con- 

 dufted for fome time at St. Paul's, with the perminion of 

 the queen and council, on condition of his returning the 

 names, abodes, and occupations of all his auditors ; but by 

 the oppofition of the bidiops, this indulgence was dilcon- 

 tinued, and he was obliged to deliver his ledures in private 

 rooms engaged for the purpufe in different parts of the town. 

 Such was the extravagance of his attachment to the Hebrew 

 language, that, having taught the fon of a friend to read 

 antffpeak it at the age of 7 or 8 years, he rigoroudy pro- 

 Viibited his talking even to his mother in Enghfli. In 1589 

 he went to Germany, and refided for fome time at Frank- 

 fort, where he held a long difpute in the Jewifh fynagogue 

 with a rabbi concerning the truth of the Chriftian religion. 

 But in his various "difputations with the Jews, and alio with 

 the papifts, he paid no great regard to the rules of prudence 

 and pollttnefs. After 'his return to England, in 1 591, he 

 publidicd " An Explication of the Article of Chriil's De- 

 fcent to Hell," maintaining with great learning that the 

 word hades no where, either among the Greeks, or in the 

 Scriptures, properly denoted hell, or a place of torment, but 

 only the place of fouls, the (lite e f the dead, or the invifible 

 world. This opinion, though now generally received, was, 

 upon his tinl avowal of it, violently oppofed, and particularly 

 by archbifhop Whitgift and bilhop Bilfon. During a gi^eat 

 part of queen Elizabeth's reign he palTed much of his time 

 abroad ; converfmg with learned men, and propagating his pe- 

 culiar opinion*. To the archbifliop of Menlz, who treated him 

 with particular diftinftion, he dedicated his trannationof 

 the Hebrew prophets into Greek ; and it has been faid, 

 though not with great probability of truth, that he wa8 

 offered a cardinal's hat, if he conformed to the church of 

 Rome. On the fubjetl: of Chrift's defcent, he addrcffed an 

 epiftle in Greek to the Genevans, which was printed at 

 Mentz in 1601 ; and in this epillle he reproved that church 

 for its unbecoming heat and violence with regard to fome 

 points, and fpoke with great feverity of the celebrated Beza, 

 to whom he alio addrefTed fome rude letters, giving to the 

 "Jefuit Serrarius, to whom he fent copies, full permiiTion to 

 Bublifh them. In 1607, the new tranllation of the bible 

 tvas begun ; and it was thought furprizing, that Broughton 

 had noconcern in it : but his peculiar notions, and the diflike 

 of the epifcopal bench, prevented his being employed. Find- 

 ing no encouragement at home, he removed again to the 

 continent, and became for fome time preacher to the Eng- 

 lilh at Middleburg in Zealand. But when his health began 

 to decline, he determined to return to England, and to die 

 in his own country. Accordingly he embarked in Novem- 

 ber 161 1 ; and in the following year he lodged in thehoufe 

 Vol. V. 



B R O 



of a friend at Tottenham High Crofs, where he died ot 4 

 pulmonary confuniptiou in Atiguft, 1612. His funeral vva-! 

 attended by a great concourfe of friends ; and his reimnu 

 were interred in St. A"tholin's church-yard. As a feholar, 

 and controveriial divine, Mr. Broughton was felf-opinioii- 

 atcd, choleric, rude, and dogmatical ; but for the heinous 

 charge of ingratitude to his full friend and patron, Beinaid 

 Gilpin, againll whom he is faid to have inecnfed the bifiiop 

 of Durham, there feems- to be no fufficient foundation. 

 His works are for the moll part printed together in one large 

 folio volume, at London, in 1662, with this fnigular title, 

 " The Works of the great Albionean Divine, renowned in 

 every nationfor greatflciU in Salem's and Athens' tongue, and 

 familiar acquaintance with all rabbinical learning, Mr.Hugh^ 

 Broughtoi'."' Dr. Lightfoot, addicled to Ihiiilar kind of 

 literature, highly extols them ; but they are now forgotten. 

 During his life, Broughton was not only a fubjed of angiy 

 controverfy, but of ridiv-ule ; an inllance of which occuri 

 in Ben Johnfon's " Alcliymift." But this contcmptuons 

 reflexion was more than counterbalanced by an elegy, poi- 

 fefhng great poetical beauties, written by an obfcure au- 

 thor, called " VV. Primroes," and annexed to his works. In 

 this elegy, theology is pf-rfonitied, and reprefented as la- 

 menting the lofs ot him. What he fays of him as a linguifi, 

 is as follows : 



« ^Vho, tuneful as the filver-pinion'd fwan, 



Canaan's rich language in perfection fang," 

 «' He knew the Greek, plenteous in words and kuie. 

 The Chaldee wife, the Arabic profound. 

 The Latin pleafmg with its eloquence, 

 The braving Spanifh with its lofty found. 

 The Tufcan grave with many a laurel crown'd, 

 The lifping French, that fits a lady vain, 

 The German, hke the people, rough and plain. 

 The Enghlh, full and rich, his native country's drain." 



Biog. Brit, 

 Broughton, Thomas, a learned epifcopalian divine, 

 and one of the firll writers in the Biograpliia Britannica* 

 was born in London, July 5, 1 704, educated at Eton, 

 and removed to Cambridge about the year 1722, where he 

 entered himfelf of Gouville and Caius college. At fchool 

 he had dillinguidied himfelf by the acutenefs of his genius, 

 and the ftudioufnefs of his dilpofition ; and at the univeifuy 

 he diredled his chief attention to the modern languages, and 

 to the mathematics, which he ftudied under the famous 

 profeffor Saunderfon. In 17:7, he took both deacon's and 

 priell's orders, and left the univerfity, to fupply the curacy 

 of Offley in Hertfordihire. In 17,39, he was prefented lo 

 the reftory of Stepington or Stibington in the county of 

 Huntingdon ; and loon after he was chofen reader to the 

 Temple, and thus introduced to an acquaintance with bi(hop 

 Sherlock, who, in 1744, preferred him to the valuable 

 vicarage of Bedminller, near Briftol, together with the 

 annexed chapels of St. Mary RedcIifT, St. Thomas, and 

 Abbot's Leigh. Upon receiving this prefeutation he re- 

 moved to Brillol, where he married a wife, by whom he 

 had feven children, of whom fix furvived him. He rehdcd 

 on his living till his death, which happened Dec. 21ft 

 1774; and his remains were interred in the church of St. 

 Mary Redcliff. 



Mr. Broughton, during his refidence in Lon,(Jort, afToci- 

 ated with the principal literary men of his time, and as he 

 was a great lover ot rnulic, he was intrbduced to the ac- 

 quaintance of Mr. Handel, whom he lurnifhed with the 

 words for many of his compohtions. In his public charafter 

 he united moderation of temper with a zealous attachment 

 to the chriftian caufe ; and in his private life, his difpofition 

 was mild, chearful, and liberal, and he devftted his time and 

 j D attjntio* 



