He attended the public service very constantly,
when he was not withheld by his practice. Never missed the sacrament in
his parish, if he were in town. Read the best English sermons he could
hear of with liberal applause: and delighted not in controversies. His
patience was founded upon the Christian philosophy, and sound faith of
God's providence, and a meek and humble submission thereto. I visited
him near his end, when he had not strength to hear or speak much: and the
last words I heard from him were, besides some expressions of dearness,
that he did freely submit to the will of God: being without fear. He had
oft triumphed over the king of terrors in others, and given him many
repulses in the defence of patients; but when his own time came, he
submitted with a meek, rational, religious courage.'
Taking Sir Thomas Browne all in all, Tertullian, Sir Thomas's favourite
Father, has supplied us, as it seems to me, with his whole life and
character in these so expressive and so comprehensive words of his,
_Anima naturaliter Christiana_. In these three words, when well weighed
and fully opened up, we have the whole author of the _Religio Medici_,
the _Christian Morals_, and the _Letter to a Friend.
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