Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 07.djvu/60

 and in ‘Things Supernatural and Divine conceived by Analogy with things Natural and Human,’ 1733. The argument in these books resembles one afterwards put forward by Dean Mansel. It is adopted from Archbishop King‘s sermon on predestination (1709, and republished with notes by Archbishop Whately, 1821). According to Browne we can have no direct knowledge at all of the real nature of the Divine attributes, though we may have an ‘analogical' knowledge through revelation. The doctrine was intended at first to upset Toland's argument against mystery as being equivalent to nonsense. Berkeley, in his ‘Alciphron' (third dialogue, 1732), urged that it really led to atheism. Browne replies to Berkeley at great length in the ‘Analogy.' Berkeley says (4 April 1734) that he did not answer the last attack, as the book had excited little notice in Ireland. Browne also took part in a controversy about the practice of drinking to the ‘glorious and immortal memory.' He maintained it to be a superstitious rite in various pamphlets: ‘Drinking in Remembrance of the dead, being the substance of a discourse delivered to the clergy of the diocese of Cork,’ 1713; second part, 1714; ‘An Answer to a Rt. Rev. Prelate's Defence of, &c.,’ 1715; a ‘Discourse of Drinking Healths, wherein the great evil of the custom is shown,’ 1716; and ‘A Letter to a Gentleman in Oxford on the subject of Health-drinking,' 1722. Swift refers to this in his letters to Sheridan (28 and 29 June 1725), and says that the bishop is a ‘whimsical gentleman,' Browne died 25 Aug. 1735, and was buried at Ballinaspic, near Cork, where he had spent 2,000l. on a house which he left to his successors in the bishopric. His body was exhumed 12 Jan. 1861, in consequence of a report that it had been stolen, and found so perfect that the resemblance to his portrait in the palace at Cork was recognisable. It was reinterred under the new cathedral church of St. Finbar, Cork. He is described as a man of austere and simple habits, lavish and secret in his charities, and a very impressive preacher. His sermons, in two volumes, were published in 1742. He left various writings in manuscript, including a third volume of the ‘Analogy,' a tract ‘On the Use and Abuse of Metaphysicks in Religion,' and some other tracts and sermons.

 BROWNE, RICHARD (d. 1669) parliamentary general, a citizen of London, is described as a 'woodmonger’ in the list of adventurers for the reconquest of Ireland, to which enterprise he subscribed 600l, He took up arms for the parliament, and obtained a command in the trained bands. In September 1642 he disarmed the royalist gentry of Kent (, i. 163). In December 1642 he served under Waller, and his regiment was the first to enter the breach at the capture of Winchester (ib. i. 229). In July 1643 he was charged with the suppression of the rising which took place in Kent in connection with Waller's plot, and crushed the insurgents in a fight at Tunbridge (16 July 1643, ib. iii. 12). On 23 Dec. 1613 the parliament appointed Browne to the command of the two regiments (the white and the yellow) sent to reinforce Waller’s army, and he shared the command at the victor of Alresford 29 March 1644). In the following summer, by an ordinance dated 8 June, he was constituted major-general of the forces raised for the subduing of Oxford, and commander-in-chief of the forces of the three associated counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire (, iii. pt. ii. 673). With three regiments of auxiliaries raised in London he took up his headquarters at Abingdon, where ‘he was a continual thorn in the eyes and goad in the sides of Oxford and the adjacent royal garrisons’ (, England’s Worthies, 101). The parliamentary ‘Diurnals’ are full of his exploits, while the royalist tracts and papers continually accuse him of plundering the country and ill-treating his prisoners. An attempt was made by Lord Digby to induce him to betray his charge, but it met with signal failure (September to December 1644, iii. pt. ii. 808-16).

In May 1615 Browne was employed for a short time in following the king's movements, but was recalled to take part in the first siege of Oxford (June 1645). He took part in the final siege of that city in the summer of 1616. On the conclusion of the war he was appointed one of the commissioners to receive Charles from the Scots (5 Jan. 1647,, iv. pt. i. 394). While at Holmby he was, according to Anthony Wood, ‘converted by the king’s discourses’ (Annals, ii. 474). He was at Holmby when the king was seized by Cornet Joyce, and told the soldiers ‘that if he had had strength we should have had his life before we brought the king away. “Indeed," said the cornet, “you speak like a gallant and faithful man," but he knew well enough he had not the strength, and therefore spake so boldly’ (, iv. 516). Browne was elected member for Wycombe amongst the recruiters, and in