Brine joined the baptist ministry at Kettering, and after preaching for some time received a call to Coventry. There he remained till about 1730, when he succeeded Mr. Morton as pastor of the baptist congregation at Curriers' Hall, Cripplegate. He was for a time one of the Wednesday evening lecturers in Great Eastcheap. He also preached in his turn at the 'Lord's Day Evening Lecture' in Devonshire Square. Brine resided for many years in Bridgewater Square, but during his last illness he took lodgings at Kingsland, where he died, on 24 Feb. 1765, in the sixty-third year of his age. He left positive orders that no funeral sermon should be preached for him. His intimate friend, Dr. Gill, however, preached a sermon upon the occasion to his own people, which was afterwards published, but contains no express reference to Brine. Brine was generally reputed a high Calvinist and a supralapsarian. He was called by many persons an antinomian, though his life was exemplary. He was buried in Bunhill Fields. His publications are numerous, and now scarce. In 1792 a pamphlet was published entitled 'The Moral Law the Rule of Moral Conduct to Believers, considered and enforced by arguments extracted from the judicious Mr. Brine's "Certain Efficacy of the Death of Christ."'
A complete catalogue of Brine's separate publications is given by Walter Wilson. The following are his chief works:
- 'The Christian Religion not destitute of Arguments, &c. … in answer to "Christianity not founded on Argument,"' 1743.
- 'The Certain Efficacy of the Death of Christ asserted' (a book at one time greatly in demand), 1743.
- 'A Vindication of Natural and Revealed Religion, in answer to Mr. James Foster,' 1746.
- 'A Treatise on various subjects: controversial tracts against Bragge, Johnson, Tindal, Jackson, Eltringham, and others' (in 2 vols.), 1750, 1756, 1766, which was extremely popular. It was edited by James Upton in 1813, with some of Brine's sermons added, and a life of the author prefixed (from Walter Wilson).
- 'Discourses at a Monthly Exercise of Prayer, at Wednesday and Lord's Day Evening Lectures, and Miscellaneous Discourses' (2 vols.); and
- 'Funeral and Ordination Sermons and Choice Experience of Mrs. Anne Brine, with Dr. Gill's Sermon at her Funeral,' 1750. Collected together, his pamphlets fill eight volumes octavo.
[Wilson's Dissenting Churches, ii. 574; Gill's Sermons and Tracts; John Brown's Descriptive List of Keligious Books; Jones's Bunhill Memorials; Catalogue of the late Mr. Thomas Jepps, of Paternoster Row, 1856; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
BRINKELOW, HENRY (d. 1546), satirist, son of Robert Brinkelow, a farmer of Kintbury, Berkshire, began life as a Franciscan, or Grey Friar, but left the order, married, and became a citizen and mercer of London. He adopted the opinions of the reforming party, and wrote satires on social and religious subjects under the pseudonym of Roderigo Mors. He says that he was banished from England through the influence of the bishops. By his will, dated 1546, the year of his death, and proved by his widow Margery, he left 5l. 'to the godly learned men who labour in the vineyard of the Lord, and fight against Anti-Christ.' This will shows that he was a man of substance. He left a son named John. His works are:
- 'The Complaynt of Roderyck Mors, sometyme a gray fryre, unto the parlament house of Ingland his natural cuntry. Mighell boys, Geneve in Savoye' (1545?); another edition, 'M. boys, Geneve' (1550); a third 'Per Franciscum de Turona' (Turin). These are in the library of the British Museum. Another edition with slight variations is in the Guildhall Library, London. The 'Complaynt' has been published by the Early English Text Society under the editorship of Mr. J. Meadows Cowper, 1874. It deals with wrongs done the people by enclosures, with the advance in rents, and with legal oppression; it recommends the confiscation of the property of bishops and deans, of chantries and the like, and, after allowing one-tenth to the crown, points out various social objects to which the remainder should be devoted. The 23rd chapter, headed 'A lamentacyon for that the body and tayle of the pope is not banished with his name,' was reprinted in 1641 as a separate broadside with the title 'The true Coppy of the Complaint of Roderyck Mors . . . unto the Parliament House of England.'
- 'The Lamentacion of a Christian against the Citie of London made by Roderigo Mors … Prynted at Jericho in the land of Promes by Thome Trauth' (1542); another edition, 'Nurembergh, 1545; 'another, in the Lambeth Library (no place), 1548; also edited for the Early English Text Society by Mr. J. M. Cowper, along with the 'Complaynt.'
Besides these, Mr. Cowper attributes to Brinkelow:
- 'A Supplycacion to our moste Soueraigne Lord Kynge Henry the Eyght,' 1544; and
- 'A Supplycation of the Poore Commons; 'large extracts from the 'Supplication of the Commons' are given in Strype's 'Memorials,' vol. i. Both these have been edited by Mr. Cowper for the Early English Text Society (1871) in one volume, with Fish's 'Supplication for the Beggars' edited
