Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 3 - Section IV
IV. The Pasteur Brevin.
The Pasteur Cosme Brevin took refuge in the Channel Islands after the St. Bartholomew massacre, and was in the reign of Elizabeth the minister of the Island of Sark. His son was the Rev. Daniel Brevint, Rector of St. John’s, Jersey, father of the more celebrated Daniel, the Very Rev. Daniel Brevint, D.D., Dean of Lincoln {born 1616, died 1695). Dr Brevint was M.A. of Saumur, and was the first native of the Channel Islands who was made Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, through a royal foundation in favour of such insular aspirants to Anglican ordination. This he lost during the Commonwealth, which interregnum he spent in Normandy, doing the duties of a French pastor. On his return home, he became a Prebendary of Durham, and was promoted to his Deanery in 1681. Dean Brevint’s works are still read: they are (1) Missale Romanum, or the depth and mystery of the Roman Mass, laid open and explained for the use of both reformed and unreformed Christians, 1672; (2) The Christian Sacrament and Sacrifice, by way of discourse, meditation, and prayer upon the nature, parts, and blessings of the Holy Communion, dedicated to Lady Elizabeth Carteret, 1673; (3) Saul and Samuel at Endor, or the new waies of salvation and service, which usually temt men to Rome and detain them there, truly represented and refuted; as also a brief account of R. F., his Missale Vindication, or Vindication of the Roman Mass, 1674. His “Christian Sacrament” is remarkable on account of the following sentence, “O Rock of Israel, Rock of Salvation, Rock struck and cleft for me; let those two streams of blood and water, which once gushed out of Thy side . . . bring down with them salvation into my soul.” This perhaps suggested Toplady’s verse:—
“Rock of Ages cleft for me! let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood, from thy riven side which flow'd,
Be of sin the double cure — cleanse me from its guilt and power.”