3. Matthew Henry (1662–1712)
Suitable to everybody, instructive to all” is the way Charles Spurgeon described what is probably the best-known commentary on the Bible written in the English language, Matthew Henry’s Commentary.1 Since it was first published more than two hundred and fifty years ago, this commentary has appeared in many different editions, including a condensation in one volume.
Spurgeon recommended that every minister of the gospel read straight through Matthew Henry’s Commentary at least once during his lifetime. Perhaps he got this idea from his model, George Whitefield, who carried his set of Matthew Henry on all of his travels and read it daily on his knees.
Matthew Henry was born at Broad Oaks, Shropshire, England, on October 18, 1662. His father, Philip Henry, was a Nonconformist minister who, along with two thousand other clergymen, had been ejected from his church by the Act of Uniformity issued that year by Charles II. These courageous men had refused to compromise their convictions and give “unfeigned consent and assent” to the Prayer Book. They also refused to submit to Episcopal ordination.
Philip Henry had married an heiress of a large estate in Broad Oaks named Catherine Matthews. Her father was not in favor of the match and told his daughter, “Nobody knows where he came from.” But Catherine wisely replied, “True, but I know where he is going, and I should like to go with him!”
Matthew was physically weak, but it was not long before his strength of intellect and character made themselves known. At the age of three, he was reading the Bible; by the time he was nine, he was competent in Latin and Greek. He spent his first eighteen years being tutored at home, in an atmosphere that was joyfully and lovingly Christian.
He loved to hear his father preach. A sermon on Psalm 51:17 first awakened in young Matthew a desire to know the Lord personally. He was only ten years old at the time, but the impression was lasting. When he was thirteen, Matthew wrote an amazingly mature analysis of his own spiritual condition, a document that reads like an ordinary paper. Often, after hearing his father preach, Matthew would hurry to his room and pray that God would seal the Word and the spiritual impressions made to his heart so that he might not lose them. God answered those youthful prayers.
In July 1680, Matthew was sent to London to study with “that holy, faithful minister,” Thomas Doolittle, who had an academy in his home. Unfortunately, the religious persecutions of the day forced Doolittle to close his academy; Matthew returned to Broad Oaks. In April 1685, he returned to London to study law at Gray’s Inn. He was a good student, but he never lost the burning desire to be a minister of the gospel.
A year later he returned to Broad Oaks and began to preach whenever opportunity presented itself, and on May 9, 1687, he was ordained. Before his ordination, he put himself through a heart-searching self-examination in which he seriously studied his own Christian experience, motives for ministry, and fitness for service. The paper contains both confession of faith and confession of sin. He concluded that he was not entering the ministry “as a trade to live by” or to make a name for himself. He also concluded, “I have no design in the least to maintain a party, or to keep up any schismatical faction.”
Throughout his ministry, Matthew Henry loved and cooperated with all who trusted Christ and wanted to serve him, no matter what their denominational connections. Even the leaders of the Episcopal Church admitted that Matthew Henry was a good and godly man. This document ought to be read by every prospective minister before he comes to ordination, and it would not hurt those of us who are already ordained to review it on occasion.
A group of believers in Chester invited Matthew Henry to become their pastor, and on June 2, 1687, he began twenty-five happy years of ministry among them. Though he was in demand to preach in other churches in the area, he was rarely absent from his own pulpit on the Lord’s Day.
He was married in August of the same year. On February 14, 1689, his wife died in childbirth, although, by the mercy of God, their daughter lived. Matthew married again on July 8, 1690, and God gave him and his wife nine children, eight of them girls, three of whom died during their first year. His only son, Philip, was born May 3, 1700, but he did not follow his father’s faith, or his grandfather’s. His interests lay in this world and not in the world to come.
God blessed the ministry in Chester so that a new sanctuary was erected and was dedicated on August 8, 1700. The effectiveness of Matthew Henry’s pulpit ministry reached even to London, and several churches there tried to secure his service. But he loved his people at Trinity Church in Chester, and refused each invitation.
Matthew was usually in his study before five o’clock each morning, devoting himself to the preparation of his exposition of the Word. He had breakfast with his family and always led them in worship, reading and expounding some passage from the Old Testament. He then returned to his study until afternoon, when he would set out to visit his people. After the evening meal, he would again lead the household in worship, using a New Testament passage for his meditation. He often questioned the children and the servants to make sure they had understood the teaching.
Often in the late evening, he would put in a few more hours of study before retiring. “Take heed of growing remiss in your work,” he warned fellow pastors. “Take pains while you live. . . . The Scripture still affords new things, to those who search them.” It was not unusual for him to preach seven times a week, and yet he was always fresh and practical. “No place is like my own study,” he said. “No company like good books, especially the book of God.” We wonder what Matthew Henry would think of those ministers who rush about all week, wasting time, and then “borrow” another man’s sermon for the Lord’s Day.
The key date in Matthew Henry’s life is November 12, 1704; on that day he started writing his famous Commentary. On April 17, 1714, he completed his comments on the Book of Acts; but two months later, on June 22, he suddenly took ill and died.
Matthew Henry was not pastoring in Chester when he was called home. On May 18, 1712, he had begun his new ministry in Hackney, London. One of the factors motivating his move was his desire to be closer to his publisher as his Commentary was being printed. He had ministered twenty-five years at Trinity Church, Chester, and only two years in London. The funeral service was held on June 25, and he was buried at Trinity Church.
Much of the material in Henry’s Commentary came from his own expositions of Scripture given at family worship and from the pulpit. There is also a great deal of Philip Henry in these pages, especially the pithy sayings that season the exposition. Matthew’s purpose in writing the Commentary was practical, not academic. He simply wanted to explain and apply the Word of God in language the common people could understand.
Several of his pastor friends gathered up his notes and sermons and completed the Commentary from Romans to Revelation. When you read their expositions, you can see how far short they fall of the high standard set by the original author. In true Puritan fashion, Matthew Henry had the ability to get to the heart of a passage, outhne the passage clearly, and then apply its truths to daily life. True, there were times when he spiritualized the text and missed the point; but generally speaking, he did his work well. One does not have to agree with all of his interpretations to benefit from his observations.
In 1765, John Wesley published an edited version of the Commentary, hoping to bring it within the reach of the average Christian reader. He felt the current version was too large and too expensive. But, at the same time, Wesley also deleted all that Matthew Henry had to say about election and predestination. He also omitted an “abundance of quaint sayings” and thus took the seasoning out of the dinner. In his preface, Wesley remarked that he used to wonder where some preachers “whom I greatly esteem” obtained the “pretty turns in preaching” that he heard in their sermons; but, after reading Matthew Henry, he discovered their source. I have a suspicion that this was a gentle criticism of his estranged friend, George Whitefield, who used to read Matthew Henry before going into the pulpit.
You will not find Matthew Henry grappling with big problems as he expounds the Word, or always shedding light on difficult passages in the Bible. For this kind of help you must consult the critical commentaries. He did not know a great deal about customs in the Holy Land, since travel to the East was quite limited in that day. Again, the student will need up-to-date commentaries and Bible dictionaries to help him in that area. However, for a devotional and practical approach to Bible exposition, this commentary leads the way.
I must confess that I have not followed Spurgeon’s advice to read straight through Matthew Henry’s Commentary, but I have used it with profit over the years. I think Henry is especially good in Genesis, Psalms, and the four Gospels. I have never consulted his Commentary early in my sermon preparation, but rather have left him (and Maclaren and Spurgeon) until after I had done my own digging and meditating. Often just a sentence from Matthew Henry has opened up a new area of thought for me and helped me feed my people.
I was surprised to discover that Matthew Henry is quoted in our two leading books of quotations. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations has fourteen Henry quotations and The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (3rd edition) has six. Apparently Matthew Henry is the originator of the phrase “creature comforts” as well as the popular saying “All this and heaven too.” Perhaps some enterprising reader could mine some of Matthew Henry’s pithy sayings and put them into a book for us.
If you want to get to know this expositor and his father better, secure The Lives of Philip and Matthew Henry, published by Banner of Truth. Matthew Henry wrote the biography of his father, and it is a classic. J. B. Williams wrote the son’s life, but it is not as exciting.
When he was on his deathbed, Matthew Henry said to a friend, “You have been asked to take notice of the sayings of dying men—this is mine: that a life spent in the service of God and communion with Him is the most pleasant life that anyone can live in this world.”