BROUGHTON, HUGH, an eminent Hebrew and rabbinical scholar, was born in 1549 at Old bury in Shropshire, and died near London in 1612. His life was spent amidst difficffities and vexations occasioned chiefly by his own inordinate vanity and his quarrelsomeness ; but his great scholarship pro cured for him the friendship of some of the most learned men of his day, both at home and abroad. Among the rest was Dr. Lightfoot, who edited Broughton's writings after his death, under the title, ' The works of the Great Albonian Divine, renowned in many nations for rare skill in Salem's and Athens' tongues, and familiar acquaintance with all rabbinical learning, Mr. Hugh Brough ton, fol. 1662.' Some of these writings are in Hebrew, and they all indicate familiarity with Jew ish learning. The language is, however, curt, harsh, and obscure,' as his editor admits, and his works, it must be confessed, are now, as Orme says, ' more an object of curiosity than of respect.' (b'i b. .Bib.)—t.
Scripture, no vestige of information can be dis covered either as to his parentage or place of birth. The first allusion to him appears in certain letters of Samuel Rutherford, dated 1637. When he came to be settled as minister of the parish of Wamphray, in Annandale, he justified, by his ex emplary diligence and devotedness, the high expec tations which Rutherford had formed of his future usefulness in the Church. After the Restoration, he became obnoxious to the dominant party, and was thrown into prison in Edinburgh, where he was denied even the necessaries of life. On the 23d December 1662, he was liberated on the con dition that he would go at once into exile. He retired to Holland, where he became minister of the Scotch church at Rotterdam. In 1676, at the
instigation of Archbishop Sharp, the English Go vernment insisted on the expulsion of Mr. Brown, together with some other exiles from the pro vinces, but the Dutch States honourably refused compliance with this demand. He assisted at the ordination of the celebrated Richard Came ron, His death seems to have taken place about the close of 1679. To judge from his works, and from the testimonies borne to his charac ter by competent authorities—such as the learned Leydecker, Spanheim, and the historian Wodrow —he must have been a man of singular piety— an earnest and faithful preacher, sound and evan gelical in his views, and remarkable for his acute ness and discrimination. His works, if collected, would fill nearly ten octavo volumes. They are mostly of a polemical and dogmatical character, some bearing his name, while others are anony mous. His chief expository work is on the Epistle to the Romans. It is constructed on the principle of giving first a brief view of the con nection and scope of the text. A series of ob servations follows, deduced from the passage when so expounded. The commentary is still of some value. It is rather diffuse in language, and sup plies no help in the elucidation of critical difficul ties. But giving in a short compass the scope of the passage, and judicious inferences from it, this commentary of Brown will be found in some re spects more useful, especially for the devotional studies of Scripture, than many productions of greater length and more elaborate character.—W. H. G.