Section 4
o The moral is easy. Be content thy person be trod upon for peace sake. Thy ptnw 1 say, not thy enuciimcf. P. Henry. Orig. MS. p Yates. q Dr. Twiss, Prolocutor of the Assembly of Divines, in 1643. He died the 90th of July, 1646. SBt. 71. He was ofl Tered a preben. dary at Winchester, which he declined, because he foresaw it would excite a quarrel between two neighbouring clergymen. Clark's Lives of Eminent Persons, p. 13. «f npra. r P. Henry. From a MS. in Mr. Matt Henry's hand.writing.
This was the practice of Dr. Hammond. See his Life, by Dr. Pell, p. 160. kf ntfra. It is said of a renowned nobleman, that he would often give to labouring men .** good summes of money, making them believe bee did but lend it them; and causfaigsome about him to passe their words for the repayment, when hee never meant to receire it again t but did that, as himself was wont to r^/y u inpo Ude, to make them continae their iaboor, and to be There are families where God's hand hath been by | correction, and they have been sensible of it; but ^ the correction being removed, they are as bad or , worse than ever. These are to be wept over.^J t
He was very charitable to the poor, and was full of alms'-deeds, which he did, (as was said of Tabitha, . Acts ix. 36.) not which he said he would do, or which he put others on to do, but which he did kirn-selfy dispersing abroad and giving to the poor, seeking and rejoicing in opportunities of that kind. And whenever he gave an alms for the body, he usually gave with it a spiritual alms, some good word of counsel, reproof, instruction, or comfort, as there was occasion, and in accommodating these to the persons he spoke to, he had a very great dexterity.
He was very forward to lend" money freely to any of his poor neighbours that had occasion, and would sometimes say, that in many cases there was more charity in lending than in giving, because it obliged the borrower both to honesty and industiy. When one of his neighbours, to whom he had lent three pounds, failed, so that he was never likely to see a farthing of it, he writes thus upon it;—notwithstanding this, yet still I judge it my duty to lend, Miyv dwfXwUifav, nothing despairing; so Dr. Hanmiond reads it, Luke vi. 36. Though what is lent in charity be not repaid, yet it is not lost When those that had borrowed money of him paid him again, he usually gave them back some part, to encourage honesty. He judged the taking of moderate interest for money lawful,' where the borrower was in a way of gaining by it. But he would advise his friends that had money rather to dispose of it otherwise if they could.
It must not be forgotten, how punctual and exact he was in all his accounts with tenants, workmen, &c. being always careful to keep such things in black and white, as he used to say, which is the surest way to prevent mistakes, and a man's wronging either himself or his neighbour; such was his prudence, and such his patience and peaceableness, that all the time he was at Broad Oak, he never sued any, nor ever was sued, but was instrumental \o prevent many a vexatious law-suit among his neighbours. good husbands." A Sermon preached at the Funeral of WiUiarn Lord Russel. by William Walker. D. D. p. 4a 4to. 1614. t Bfr. Henry has thus recorded the opinion of Mr. Baxter on this subject It is transcribed from his coinmon.phice book. *' If usury be condemned, 'tis either by law of nature or some positive law. If the former, then either as an act of impiety, ipjustice, or unmercifuhiess. That which can be proved to have any of these I am resolved against, but there is some usury which I am not able to see any of these in, nay, I think I could so lend on usury in some cases, as might be as great an act of bounty or mercy as to give near half the money. If it be forbidden by a positive law, then either of Moses, or of Christ. Not of Moses, for the Mosaic law is abrogated, though much of the matter of it be still in force, —as the law of nature, and of Christ Not of Christ; for where hath Christ any such posi Uve law! On these grounds I fptak against all uigust tnd unmerciful usury, but I dare go no flntber, and yet I will justify none,—there is a paper of Dr. Sanderson's
THE LIFE OP MR. PHILIP HENRY. m>
He used to say,-—There are four rules to be duly ob-lerred in going to law; (1.) We must not go to law for trifles, as he did who said, he would rather si>end a hundred pounds in law, than lose a penny-worth of his right, Matthew v. 30, 40, 41. (2.) We must not be rash and hasty in it, but tiy all other means possible to compose difierences; wherein he that yields most, as Abraham did to Lot, is the better nan; and there is nothing lost by it in the end, 1 Corinthians vi. 1, 2. (3.) We must see that it be without malice, or desire of revenge. If the undoing of oar brother be the end of our going to law, as it is with many, it is certainly evil, and it speeds accordingly. (4.) It must be with a disposition to peace, whenever it may be had, and an ear open to all overtures of that kind. The two mottos proper for the great guns are applicable to this, ratio ultima regumf and sic qumrimus pacem, [He was an enemy to austerity of deportment, and much enjoyed the pleasures of social intercourse. '' Pest-houses," he would say,'' always stand alone and yet are full of infectious diseases. Solitariness is no infallible argument of sanctity."** It was against the evil* of society his watchfulness was directed, and these he uniformly endeavoured to counteract. Hence four rules he sometimes gve to be observed in our converse with men. Have conmiunion with few. Be familiar with one. Deal justly with all. Speak evil of none.
He was noted for an extraordinary neat husband about his house and ground, which he would often say he could not endure to see like the field of the slothful and the rineyard of the man void of under-ttanding. And it was strange, how easily one that had been bred up utterly a stranger to such things, yet when God so ordered his lot, acquainted himself with, and acconmiodated himself to, the affairs of the country, making it the diversion of his vacant hours to over-see his gardens and fields; when he better understood that known Epode of Horace, Beatus ille qui procul negotiisy' than he did when in his youth he made an ingenious translation of it. His care of this kind was an act of charity to poor labourers whom he employed; and it was a good example to his neighbours, as well as for the comfort of his family. His converse likewise with these things was excellently improved for spiritual purposes, by occasional meditations, hints of which there tetf moderate and clear in it" Mr. Baxter. MS. letter to Mr. Kewcome.
Com. PI. Book. Orig. MS. " It is a acandall that is cast upon reiigion, and the profeflBOTS of it, that they are unneighbourly and aaiociable. God himaelf loves society, he loves holy meetings, be lovct the communion of saints, the household of foith, and his del Sgikt is to be with the sons of men, and well approves that the soosermentfKMild be one with another, yet so that he may not be exdndtd.** Bzpoa. on Luke zi. 5-U. by Nehemiah Rogers, 4tOLMfiapkU9.
VitiaRosUcsLandea.
P.Uenry. Diary, Oiif. MS. are often in his Diary, as those that conversed with him had many in discourse. Instances of this were easy, but endless, to give.
[The following may suffice :—
1661, March 20. The garden finished in time of an eclipse.—Lord, lift up upon me the light of thy countenance, and let nothing cloud it towards my soul!
Hawthorn sets planted to hedge in the orchard* Lord, be thou a wall of fire roimd about thy church, and let not the wild boar out of the forest devour thy tender plants I
A tree cut up by the roots may have the leaves green upon it a great while. So a people, or person, devoted by God to ruin, may yet retain many of their outward comforts for a time, but they are withering. Saul, though rejected, obtained many victories."
As far as the boughs of a tree spread, so far spread the roots. As much corruption in our actions, so much in our hearts.*
He used to say, that therefore many of the scripture parables and similitudes are taken from the common actions of this life, that when our hands are employed about them, our hearts may the more easily pass through them to divine and heavenly things. I have heard him often blame those, whose irregular zeal in the profession of religion makes them to neglect their worldly business, and let the house drop through; the affairs of which the good man will order with discretion; and he would tell sometimes of a religious woman, whose fault it was, how she was convinced of it by means of an intelligent, godly neighbour; who, coming into the house and finding the good woman, far in the day, in her closet, and the house sadly neglected, children not tended, servants not minded.—What, saith he, is there no fear of God in Uiis house ? Which much startled and affected the good woman, that overheard him. He would often say,—Every thing is beautiful in its season; and that it is tlie wisdom of the pnident, so to order the duties of their general callings as Christians, ^d those of their particular callings in the world, as that they may not clash or interfere,^ I have heard it observed from Ecclesiastes vii. 16.—That there may be over-doing in well-doing.*
[He maintained, however,—That a Christian ought not to engage himself further in worldly business
X Com. PI. Book. Orig. MS. y One of the fathers,* speaking of the practice of Christians in the primitive times, saith,—" At supper, we eat and drink as those that must pray before they go to bed. So should we follow our callings all day as those who must pray before they go to bed.*' Lay not out the strength of your spirits upon earthly things, but keep it for fellowship with God. P. Henry. Orig. BAS.
I It is said of the " pious and profoundly-learned ** Joseph Mede. that the apophthegm,—Over-doing always undoes,—was " often in his nrauth." Appendix to his Life, preflzed to his Works* p xlli. foL 1679.
TaitoUiWi wd Mt ri«v«l%W*rks,Tol.Tf.p: 991.
THE LIFE OF MR, PHIUP HENRY. than 80 as still to keep himself fit for prayer. And sometimes would exclaim,—After the heart hath been let loose a little in the world, oh, what a hard matter is it to find it again! *]
I cannot omit one little passage in his Diary, because it may be instructive. When he was once desired to be bound for one that had, upon a particular occasion, been bound for him, he writes,—Solomon saith, He that hateth suretyship is sure ; but he saith also, He that hath friends, must show himself friendly. But he always cautioned those that became sureties, not to be bound for any more than they knew themselves able to pay, nor for more than they would be willing to pay, if the principal fail.
His house at Broad Oak was by the road side, which, though it had its inconveniences, yet, he would say, pleased him well, because it gave his friends an opportunity of calling on him the oftener.'*
[He was a lover of good men, and such always met a cordial welcome under his roof; so that he would pleasantly say sometimes, when he had his Christian friends about him,—He had room for twelve of them in his beds, a hundred of them in his barn, and a thousand of them in his heart.*^
Nor was he unmindful of others; for he spoke of it with pleasure, that the situation of his house also**] gave him an opportunity of being kind to strangers, and such as were any way distressed on the road, to whom he was upon all occasions cheerfully ready, fully answering the apostle's character of a bishop, that he must be of good behaviour,—K<Kr;jioCf decent, aflable, and obliging,—and ^iven to hospitality; 1 Timothy iii. 2. like Abraham, sitting at his tent-door, in quest of opportunities to do good. If he met with any poor near his house, and gave them alms in money, yet he would bid them go to his door besides, for relief there. He was very tender and compassionate towards poor strangers and travellers, though his charity and candour were often imposed upon by cheats and pretenders, whom he was not apt to be suspicious of; but would say, in the most favourable sense,—TAou knowest not the heart of a stranger. If any asked his charity, whose representation of their case he did not like, or who he thought did amiss to take that course, he would first give them an alms, and then mildly reprove them; and labour to convince them that they were out of the
• P. Henry. Orig. MS. b 1697.a Friday, January la
One of my dear father's remarks was this,—That, though it be comfortable to have friends to visit, and comfort in them; yet it is more to have a comfortable home; such a rest as this world affords. Blessed be God for the remaining rest. Mrs. Savage's Diary. Orig. MS.
The learned Henry Jessy could not ** bix>ok fruitless visits, and wrote his mind concerning it over his studie door accordingly i"— DirtdUnu to aU FisHon, »
No fruitless visits. No, nor speech. For time is precious: hinder none. way of duty, and that they could not expect that God should bless them in it; and would not chide them, but reason with them. And he would say,»-If he should tell them of their faults, and not give them an alms, the reproof would look only like an excuse to deny his charity, and would be rejected accordingly.
In a word, his greatest care about the things of this world was, how to do good with what he had, and to devise liberal things; desiring to make no other accession to his estate, but only that blessing which attends beneficence. He did firmly believe, and it should seem few do, that what is given to the poor, is lent to the Lord, who will pay it again in kind or kindness; and that religion and piety are undoubtedly the best friends to outward prosperity, and he found it so; for it pleased God abundantly to bless his habitation, and to make a hedge ahoui him, and about his house, and about all that he had round about.* And though he did not delight himself in the abundance of wealth; yet, which is far better, he delighted himself in the abundance of peace; Psalm xxxvii. 11. All that he had, and did, observably prospered, so that the country oftentimes took notice of it;..and called bis family a family which the Lord had blessed.
His comforts of this kind were, as he used to pray they might be,—Oil to the wheels of his obedience / and, in the use of these things, he served the Lord his God with joy fulness and gladness of heart, yet still mindful of, and grieved for, the affliction of Joseph. He would say sometimes, when he was in the midst of the comforts of this life, as that good man;—All this, and heaven too! Surely, then, we serve a good Master. Thus did the Lord bless him, and make him a blessing; and this abundant grace, through the thanhsgiving of many, redounded to the glory of God.
Having given this general account of his circumstances at Broad Oak, we shall now go on with his story, especially as to the exercise of his ministry there, and thereabouts; for that was his Th Ipyov, the thing in which he was, and to which he wholly gave himself, taking other things 'Qc xaptpya. After this settlement at Broad Oak, whenever there was preaching at Whitewell Chapel, as usually there wa two Lord's days in the month, he constantly attended
Let words be few,—good. Then cease. Despatch:—prepare for death, i \^*^ i gone. Life duod. 1671, p. 102. e So Mr. Vavasor Powel, who " was very free in the entertain, ment of strangers, and all saints,'* would say.—'* He had room for twelve in his beds, a hundred in his bams, and a thousand in his heart." Life and Death of Mr. Powel, p. 111. duod. 1671. d Life. Orig. MS. ut npra.
See P. Henry's Sermons, utntpra. Sermon I. p. 33. t If love be the weight and the oil that makes the wheels run. thine obedience is such as it ought to be. Dyke's Worthy Com> municant, •/ ntpro, p. 341. See jmiA p. 79.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
7t hen with his family, was usually with the first, and tTerently joined in the public servite; he dili-rently wrote the sermons; always stayed if the ffdinance of baptism was administered, but not if bere were a wedding, for he thought that a solem-lity not proper for the Lord's day. He often dined he minister that preached; after dinner he sung a )5alm, repeated the morning sermon, and prayed; tnd then attended in like manner in the afternoon, in the evening he preached to his own family; and, )erfaaps, two or three of his neighbours would drop n to him. On those Lord's days, when there was )o preaching at the chapel, he spent the whole day It borne; and many an excellent sermon he preached, rben there were present only four besides his own amily, and perhaps not so many, according to the imitation -of the Conventicle Act.^ In these narrow vivate circumstances he preached over the former •art of the Assembly's Catechism, from divers texts; e also preached over Psalm cxvi. besides many articular occasional subjects. What a grief of heart it was to him, to be thus at under a bushel, and confined to such a narrow phere of asefnlness, read in his own words, which shall transcribe out of an elegy he made, to give ent to his thoughts, upon the death of his worthy riend, Mr. George Mainwaring, some time Minister f Malpas, who was silenced by the Act of Uni-omity, and died, March 14, 1609-70; wherein he bus bewails, feelingly enough, the like restraints nd confinements of his friend:— His later years he sadly spent. Wrapt up in silence and restraint. A burden such as none do know, But they that do it undergo. To have a fire, shut up and pent Within the bowels, and no vent; To have gorg'd breasts, and, by a law. Those that fain would, forbidden to draw. But his dumb sabbaths here, did prove Loud crying sabbaths in heav'n above. His tears, when he might sow no more. Watering what he had sown before.
Soon after Mr. Henrjr's settlement at Broad Oak, e took a young scholar into the house with him; f In reference to the termination oT the Conventicle Act, IG harles IL c. 4 he writes :—16A9, March 1. This day, as is sup. Dsed, determines th«.Act against Conventicles, the Parhament tmg prorogued by proclamation, from this day to October 19, hicb prorogation makes a session, and the Act was to continue T three years, and to the end of the next session after, which is lia
And, blesKd be God, who liath let me live to see il die { for, loogb bat few in these parts have suffered much by it, yet some ire, and to others it bath been as a bridle of restraint, hindering em in the free exercise of their duty, which is, as they have xaaioo, tosnemble themselves together for mutual edification, hereby God bath bad great dishonour, and poor souls no small »in heaven's way* partly to teach his son, and partly to be a companion to himself, to converse with him, and to receive help and instruction from him ; and, for many years, he was seldom without one or other such ; who before their going to the University, or in the intervals of their attendance there, would be in his family, sitting under his shadow. One of the first he had with him, in the year 1668, and after, was Mr. William Turner, born in the neighbourhood ; afterwards of Edmund Hall, in Oxford, now Vicar of Walburton in Sussex, to whom the world is beholden for that elaborate '* History of all Religions," which he pub* lished in the year 1695, and from whom is earnestly expected the performance of that nob and useful project for the " Record of Providences." •» Betwixt Mr. Henry and him there was a most entire and affectionate friendship ; and, notwithstanding that distance of place, a constant and endearing correspondence kept up as long as Mr. Henry lived.
It was observed, that several young men who had sojourned with him, and were very hopeful, and likely to be serviceable to their generations, died soon after their removal from him; I could instance in six or seven, as if God had sent them to him to be prepared for another world, before they were called for out of this; yet never any died while they were with him.
He had so great a kindness for the University, and valued so much the mighty advantages of improvement there, that he advised all his friends who designed their children for scholars, to send them thither, for many years after the change, though he always counted upon their conformity. But long experience altered his mind herein, and he chose rather to keep his own son at home with him, and to give him what help he could there, in his education, than venture him into the snares and temptations of the University.
It was also soon after this settlement of his at Broad Oak, that he contracted an intimate friendship with that learned, and pious, and judicious gentleman, Mr. Hunt of Boreatton, the son of Colonel Hunt, of Salop, and with his excellent lady Frances, daughter of the Right Honourable the Lord Paget.* The acquaintance then begun between Mr. Henry and that worthy family, continued to his dying day, about thirty years. One Lord's
It seems the Lord hath inclined the King's heart to this, which is in his hand, and he tumeth it whithersoever he pleaseth. To him be glory!
I am somewhat fearful lest any ill use should be made of this indulgence by intemperate spirits, especially now at first; which, God prevent, for his own name, mercy, and gospel sake. P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS. Another Conventicle Act soon after passed; the 22nd Charles n. c. I. h Afterwards published in folio, 1607. i Ambassador for many years at Vienna, afterwards at Constantinople. He and Lady Iet sojourned for some years with his brother-in-law Mr. Hunt of Boreatton. He came oft to Broad Oke to visit Mr. Henry. Life. Orig. MS. m/ npra. See the Life and Errors of John Dunton, v. 1. p. 347. ut supra.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY. day in tf quarter he oommonly spent with them, besides other interviews. And it was a constant rejoicing to him to see religion and the power of godliness uppermost, in such a family as tiiat, when not many mighty, not many noble, are called ; and the branches of it branehei of righteovuneUy the planting of the Lord. Divers of the honourable relations of tiiat family contracted a very geat respect for him, particularly the present Lord Paget, now his Majesty's Ambassador at the Ottoman Court, and Sir Henry Ashurst, whom we shall have occasion afterwards to make mention of.
[Mr. Henry also stood high in the esteem of Thomas CAbet, Esq.'' of Stanwardine,' George GljTve, Esq. of Walford, and Mr. Harris, of Pres-cot These gentlemen were always glad to receive him into their houses, and to attend upon his ministry whenever they had an opportunity. They lived in the same parish,™ and though they generally frequented the place of public worship, where they had a sober, judicious, and peaceable minister, the Rev. Mr. Hudson, yet they had often sermons preached in their own houses by the nonconformists, who lived near them, sometimes on week-days, sometimes on the Lord's day, out of the time of public worship ; and I have often seen some of Mr. Hudson's family, his wife and children, present on such occasions."]
In the time of trouble and distress by the Conventicle Act, in 1670, he kept private, and stirred little abroad, as loth to offend those that were in power, and judging it prudence to gather in his sails when the storm was violent. He then observed, as that which he was troubled at,—^That there was a gpeat deal of precious time lost among professors, when they came together, in discoursing on their adventures to meet, and their escapes, which he feared tended more to set up self, than to give glory to God. Also in telling how they got together, and such a one preached, but little inquiring what spiritual benefit and advantage was reaped by it; and that we are k See two sermons preached at Cockahatt Chapel, Salop, by William Gearing, entitled." WisdomJusUfled of her Children,** and dedicated to Robert Corbet and Thomas Corbet, of Stanwardine, Esqis. and to the fertuous Gentlewomen, their Wives.*' duod. 166&
11871. July 12. With my wife, at Stanwardine.
1 accompanied them in killing a buck in their own park; ftur from being taken with any great delight or pleasure in the sport They sent part of him to Broad Oak. P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS. m Baschorch.
B Tong's life of Blatt Henry, pp. 96,37. «# npre. o The following minutes are now curious:— 1671. August 14. Lodged this night at Wolverhampton.
15. To Bromicham: thence to Coventry.
16. To Daventry: thence to Stony Stratford. Ebenezer.
17. To Bamett. la To London. The ways fair, and the weather tevonrable beyond expectation. Spent by the way, self and hone, 20#. P. Henry. Diary, Orig. BIS. p See CoUins's Peerage, v. 2. p. 606^ and Reliq. Baxter, part. fii. p. 96. apt to make the eireumttaneet of our religious services more Ihe matter of our discourse than the tubttanee of them.
[At the latter end of the year 1671, he ventured to London; and the following extracts from his Diary, on that occasion, will not be uninteresting.
1671, August 13. Preached on Jacob's vow, Genesis xxviii. 20, &c. with personal application, saying,—7/* God will be with me in this way thai I ffo, then the Lord shall be my God.
14. I set forward ° towards London.
19. To Kensington.
22. Back to London again.
24. Solemn fast in remembrance of the sad day of ministers' ejection, kept at the Countess of Exeter's, P with some measure of holy meltings and enlargements. Dr. Jacomb,*! Mr. Steel,' Mr. Mayo,* Mr. Bull,' Mr. Poole," prayed and preached alter* natim. Texts, Psalm li. 4; xxxix. 9.
27. Preached at Mr. Doolittel's meeting place.* Text, Matthew xxv. 29.-7(9 him that hath, &c.
30. Preached at Mr. Steel's.^ Text, 1 Corinthians X. 12. in much distraction.
September 1. This evening I was ill.
2. Attempted to keep the annual fast, this day, in remembrance of the dreadful fire of London, A. D. 1666; but strength failed: to will was present, to do was not. Thanks is also to be gven for the strange and wonderful rebuilding of it in so short a time; which, but that my eyes saw, I could hardly have believed. I had the sentence of death within myself, and was, in some measure, willing to it, at that time, and in that place, though a stranger,' had God seen good ; but a reprieve came.
3. I should have preached and communicated with Dr. Annesley,^ but prevented. Multa eadent inter. Time was when I might, and did not; now I would, and might not.
7. To Islington, where was buried Mr. Burghess,' a nonconformist minister of the west country: there
Dr. Thomas Jacomb was bora in 1632, and died 27 Mar. 1687. See Wilson's Hist of Dissenting churches, ▼. 3. p. 13, fcc. r See amttt P- 35.
The Rev. Richard Mayo, an eminent nonconformist, was bora about 1631; he died Sept. 8,1606. See Wilson's Hist ▼. 3. p. 9. t Rev. Daniel Bull. See Palmer's Noncon. Mem. v. 3. p. 458, fcc. W nrm, n See aitUt p. 47.
Whether then in MonkwelUstreet, or not, seena rather an. certain. Query,—Was not Monkwell-street Meeting-house in the possession of the Lord Mayor in 16711 See Wilson's Hist ▼. 3. pp. 193,194. Mr. Doolittle was born at Kidderminster, A. D. 1030, Hedied,May34,1707.a. w His congregation met at Armourer's Hall, Coleoanstreet Wilson's Hist v. '2. p. 4&L
X See Lire oT Archbishop Leighton. Works, v. I. p. xli. oct.tSSO.
7 Dr. Samuel Annesley was bom A. D. 1690, and died Dec. 31, 1696. See Wilson's Hist. y. 1. pp. 365-370. t It is probable that the rererence is to the Rev. John Burgesi. M. A. See the Noncon. Mem. v. S. p. 3.«/ mpra: also, an extract from a letter written by Mr. Henry to his wire relating to the funeral of Mr. Burgess, fn the Univ. Thaol. Biag. voL & p. 184.
TH£ LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
73 were {Kretent one hundred or aixscore ministers; and I bless God that for one dead there were so many lifing. Bat it grieyed me to see them diyided; part stayed the office for the dead, part going oat. Here I saw Mr. Senior/ Mr. Bull, Mr. Rowles, former acquaintances.
10. A sabhatb spent with Mr. Doolittel. Text, John yiii. 36. persnading sinners to be willing to be made free.
11. I saw Dean Hodges,** persuading to conform, but I dare not on such terms.
18. I reached home.
29. Day of family thanksgiving. The Lord accept in Christ Jesus.^
The Tisit, and particularly the indisposition which has been stated, gave rise to a letter which, viewed as an illustration of character, is too interesting to be entirely omitted. '* For Mr. Philip Henry, to be left with Mr. Enock Darack, at the sine of the Trumpet, within Aldersgte, London,' ft
My dear Husband;
I received your last yesterday, and am grieved to hear of your being ill. The children and family are well, blessed be God, and myself as well as I can be whilst in fear that you are ill. I have given up all my interest in you to my heavenly Father, and am labouring to be ready for evil tidings, which, if it be, God knows how I shall bear it I shall expect, between hope and fear, till to-monow night, and, whatever the issue may be, labour to justify God. Yet I hope to hear of your coming, and when it will be, in your next. My dear heart, the Lord be with you, and send us a happy meeting; so prayeth your Faithful and loving Wife, September 6, IG71. Katherine Henry.']
We shall close this chapter with two remarks out of his Diary, in the year 1671, which will show what manner of spirit he was of, and what were his sentiments of things at that time. One is this,—AH acknowledge that there is at this day a number of sober, peaceable men, both ministers and others, among Dissenters; but who either saith Or doth any thing to oblige them ? Who desireth or endeavoureth to open the door to let in such ? Nay ; do they not rather provoke them to run into the same extravagances with others, by making no difference, but
The Rer. Hkmiibs Senior, B. D. was Fellow and Lecturer or Trinity Cburcti, Cambridge. He was a Westminster Scholar. NoneoD. Mem. ▼. I. p. ^S. ntnfra. b Dean of Hereford, and fother of Dr. Natb. Hodges. He had tbe Hving of Kensington, and was buried there Aug. 37,1672. LfRNM's EnF. of London, ▼. 3. p. 193L Dr. N. Hodges was one of Mr. Henry's contempora Hes at Westminster and Oxford. See Mr. Cbafanenrs Biog. Diet. toL is. p. 24.
P. Henry. Diary. Orig. MS. «Orig.MS.
Tbe giaodiOB of tbe Tenerable John Dod, (see j»m/. p. 80») laying load on them as if they were as bad as the worst? It is true that about this time the Lord Keeper Bridgman, and Bishop Wilkins,* and the Lord Chief Justice Hale,' were making some overtures towards an accommodation with them; but it is as true, that those overtures did but the more exasperate their adversaries, who were ready to account such moderate men the worst enemies the Church of England had, and the event was, greater acts of severity.
Another is this,~If all that hath been said and written to prove that prelacy is anti-christian, and that it is unlawful to join in the Common Prayer, had been effectual to persuade bishops to study and do the duty of church rulers, in preaching, and feeding the flock, according to the word and to persuader people to be serious, inward, and spiritual in the use of forms, it had been much better with the church of God in England, than it now is. Consonant to the spirit of this remark, was that which he took all occasions to mention as his settled principle.—In those things wherein all the people of God are agreed, I will spend my zeal; and wherein they differ I will endeavour to walk according to the light that God hath given me, and charitably believe that others do so too.
CHAPTER VI.
HIS UBBBTT BT THB INDULOKNCB IN THB TBAft 1673, AKD THBNCEFORWARD TU THB TBAR 1681.
Notwithstanding the severe act against conventicles in the year 1670, yet the nonconformists in London ventured to set up meetings in 1671, and were connived at; * but in the country (here was little liberty taken, till the King's declaration of March 15, 1671-2, gave countenance and encouragement to it. What were the secret springs which produced that declaration,'' time discovered; however, it was to the poor dissenters as life from the dead, and gave them some reviving in their bondage; God graciously ordering it so, that the spirit he had made might not fail before him. But so precarious a liberty was it, that it should never be said, those people were hard to be pleased, who were so well pleased with that, and thanked God, who put such a thing into the King's heart. The tenor of that declaration was this,—In consideration of the ineffiwas bom in 1fil4; ob. 19 Nov. isrx Chalmers's Biog. Diet ▼. 32. p. 74. &c. And see the Biog. Brit. v. L p. 637. f Sir Matthew was bom Nov. 1. iaO0, and died 05 Dcc:i676. Sec his Life and Works, 2 vols. oct. 1R05. a 1671. Nov. 0. Five London ministers with the King; Dr. Annesley, Mr. Watson, Mr. Whitaker, and the two VincenU} to whom he said,- He was sensible of their straits, and would endea. vour their enlargements. Amen. He said,>Ashe would not wlll-ing>'y be persecuted himself Tor his own religion, so neither did he like to penecute others for theirs. P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS. b See it at length in Nears Hist. v. 4. p. 461, fcc.«/ wfta.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY. cacy of rigoar, tried for divers years, and to invite strangers into Uie kingdom, ratifying the Establishment in the Church of England, it suspends penal laws against all nonconformists and recusants, pro-miscth to license separate places for meetings, limiting papists only to private houses.
On this Mr. Henry writes ; It is a thing diversely resented, as men's interests lead them; the conformists displeased, the presbyterians glad, the independents *" very glad, the papists triumph. The danger is, saith he, lest the allowing of separate places help to overthrow our parish-order, which God hath owned, and to beget divisions and animosities among us, which no honest heart but would rather should be healed. We are put hereby, saith he, into a trilemma, either to turn independents in practice, or to strike in with the conformists, or to sit down in former silence and sufferings, (and silence he accounted one of the greatest sufferings,) till the Lord shall open a more effectual door. That which, he saith, he then heartily wished for, was,—That those who were in place, would admit the sober nonconformists to preach sometimes occasionally in their pulpits; by which means he thought prejudices would in time wear off" on both sides, and they might mutually strengthen each other's hands against the common enemy,—the papists ;«* who he foresaw would fish best in troubled waters. This he would choose much rather than to keep a separate meeting. But it could not be had. No, not so much as leave to preach in Whitewell chapel when it was vacant, as it often was, though it were three long miles from the parish church. He found that some people, the more they are courted, the more coy they are; however, the overtures he made to this purpose, and the slow steps he took towards the setting up of a distinct congregation, yielded him satisfaction afterwards in the reflection, when he could say,—we would have been united, and they would not.
It was several weeks after the declaration came out, that he received a licence to preach, as Paul did/ in his own house, and elsewhere, no man forbidding him. This was procured for him by some of his friends in London, without his privity, and came to him altogether unexpected.
[On the King's declaration, his papers contain the following observations:— All or most of the conformists have said they could not deny us ministers, but not ministers of the Church of England, without episcopal ordination.
By a minister of the Church of England can be e In two things the independents are to be commended,—they keep up discipline among them; they love and correspond one with another. P. Henry. Diary, Orig. MS. d In the debates on the Bill for unitiog His Majesty's Protestant
Subjects, Dec. 21, 1690, it was remarked, by a Member of the lioi/Be of Commons, that the Oxford Act, and other laws against
were much promiited by Sir ThonoB Clifford, Sir Solomeant no other than a minister of Christ authorized to preach in the Church of England.
All the power' to be owned in bishops,is derived to them from the King; and, in those things wherein the King hath power in church matters, in those things we may obey the bishops, as his delegates and substitutes.
In King James's time, when four Scotch presbyters were to be consecrated bishops at Lambeth, it was moved that they might first be ordained presbyters again; but it was overruled, being without need.
In OUT case, the King immediately, without bishops, which is the better, gives us liberty, being already ministers of Christ, to preach in his dominions where he appoints.
The law calls the King patron-general of England. His appointing me to preach, supposes I must have hearers, and tliose, of necessity, out of some parish or other. What we do is to serve the present necessity, and not of choice.
There are many among us debarred by imposition from communicating with freedom in public in the Lord's supper; the King takes pity upon them authorizes one or another to give it in a way wherein they are satisfied. And why not ? > ]
The use he made of it was, that at his own house, what he did before to his own family, and in private, the doors being shut for fear, he now did more publicly ; threw his doors open, and welcomed his neighbours to him, to partake of his spiritual things. Only one sermon in the evening of the Lord's day, when there was preaching at Whitewell chapel, where he still continued his attendance with his family and friends as usual; but when there was not, he spent the whole day, at public time, in the services of the day, exposition of the Scriptures read, and preaching, with prayer and praise. This he did gratis receiving nothing for his labours, either at home or abroad, but the satisfaction of doing good to souls, which was his meat and drink, with the trouble and charge of giving entertainment to many of his friends, which he did with much cheerfulness; and he would say, he sometimes thought that the bread did even multiply in the breaking; and he found that God did abundantly bless his provision with that blessing, which, as he used to say, will make a little to go a gfreat way. He was wont to observe, for the encouragement of such as had meetings in their houses, which sometimes drew upon them inconveniences,—That the ark is a guest that always pays well for its entertainment. And he noted, that when mon Swale, and Sir Roger Strickland, who since all appeared to be Papists. ColL of the Parliamentary Debates, from 166& ▼. L p. 484. oct. 1741. e See Acts xxi. 40. f See Hooker's Eccl.
% P. Henry. Orig. MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
76
Cfariit hmd bonoiped Peter's boat to preach a sermon oat of it, he presently repaid him for the loan, with a $remi draught ofjuhes, Luke y. 3, 4.
Many thoughts of heart he had concerning this use he made of the liberty, not knowing what would be in the end hereof; but after serious consideration, and Biany prayers, he saw his way very plain before him, and addressed himself with all diligence to the im-pro Tcment of this gale of opportunity.^ Some had dismal apprehensions of the issue of it; and that tliere would be an after-reckoning. But, saith he, let us mind our duty, and let God alone to order events, which arc his work, not ours.
It was a word upon the wheels, which he preached at that time for his own encouragement, and the encouragement of his friends, from that scripture, Ecclesiastes xi. 4. He that observet the wind thall not taw J mnd he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. Those that are minded either to do good, or ^ good, most not be frighted with seeming difficulties and discouragements. Our work is to sow and reap, to do good and get good ; and let us mind that, and let who will mind the winds and clouds. A lion in the way a lion in the streets ;' a very unlikely place, he would say, for lions to be in; and yet that senres the slugged for an excuse.
[In one of his Diaries, in reference to this subject, he thus writes:—I had occasion to discover another of the sins which do so easily beset me, and that is fearfalness. I am often afraid where no fear is. Dr. Hammond observes,—In evil times it fares best with them that are most careful about duty, and least about safety.
To be afraid where no fear is, is sometimes the sin of God's people, and oftentimes the punishment of wicked men. Proverbs xxviii. l.*'
Thus diligently did he watch against evil, and excite himself to activity in his Master's service.]
While this liberty lasted, he was in labours more abundant; many lectures ho preached abroad in Shropshire, Cheshire, and Denbighshire,' laying out himself exceedingly for the good of souls, spending and being spent in the work of the Lord. And of that neighbourhood and of that time it was said, that this and that man was bom again, then and there; and many there were who asked the way to Sion, with their face thitherwards, and were (not proselyted to a party, but) savingly brought homo to Jesus h Opportuoity is the flower and crram ortime. All opportunity b time, bat all time is not opportunity. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
See tbc *' Gale of Opportunity;" a Sermon, preached at Lidbury North, at the Funeral or the Worehipful Humphrey Walcut. or Walcot, Esq. June S. 1650; by Thomas Froysell, Minister of the Gospel at Clan, in Shropshire, duod. 1658. i See the outlines of a Sermon by Mr. P. Henry on this passage, in the Evan. Mag. v. zxii. p. 512. k OngMS.
I Particularly Wrexham. In 1672 he has recorded a circumstance, which, while locally interesting, is illustrative or his own character, and (kaught with ioatruction :~I said to Mn. Figes, in Christ. I mean this; such as had been vain, and worldly, and careless, and mindless of God and another world, became sober, and serious, and concerned about their souls, and a future state. This was the conversion of souls, aimed at, and laboured after, and through grace not altogether in vain.
Whatever lectures were set up in the country round, it was still desired that Mr. Henry would begin them, (which was thought no small encourage* ment to those who were to carry them on,) and very happy he was, both in the choice and management of his subjects at such opportunities, seeking to find out acceptable words. Take one specimen of his address, when he began a lecture with a sermon on Hebrews xii. 15. I assure you, saith he; and God is my witness, I am not come to preach, either sedition against the peace of the state, or schism against the peace of the church, by persuading you to this or that opinion or party; but as a minister of Christ, that hath received mercy from the Lord, to desire to be faithful, my errand is to exhort you to all possible seriousness in the great business of your eternal salvation, according to my text, which if the Lord will make as profitable to you, as it is material and of weight in itself, neither you nor I shall have cause to repent our coming hither, and our being here today ; looking diligently, lest any of you fail of the gace of God. If it were the last sermon I were to preach, I did not know how to take my aim better to do you good."
In doing of this work, he often said, that he looked upon himself but as an assistant to the parish ministers, in promoting the common interests of Christ's kingdom, and the common salvation of precious souls, by the explication and application of those great truths, wherein we are all agreed. And he would compare the case to that in Hezekiah's time, when the Levites helped the priests to kill the sacrifice, which was something of an irregularity, but the exigence of affairs called for it; the priests being too few, and some of them not so careful as they should have been to sanctify themselves; (see 2 Chronicles xxix. 34.) and wherever he preached, he usually prayed for the parish minister, and for a blessing upon his ministry. He hath often said how well pleased he was, when, after be had preached a lecture at Oswestry, he went to visit the minister my own house, speaking of the odbnce taken at the meeting-place in Wrexham being a bam, that,—wheat in a bam is better than chafl Tin a church. Her brother. Stephen Morhal, hearing it, told some, who told others, and it reached Dr. Fowler, who, a sabbath or two after, look notice of it in the pulpit, and said,—" There are some who, in the abundance of their humility, have said, lately, that there is nothing but chaflT in churches; whereas chaff is rather to be looked for in bams,"—or, to that purpose. Whereby, I sec how words, innocently spoken, may be perverted; but I, as a deaf man, heard not; for, 1 said, Lotd, tbou\^«U«^. V .>\^T£rs. Diary, Orig. MS. m Appendix, No. XV.
THE LIFE OF MR. PmLIP HENRY. of the place, Mr. Edwards^'* a worthy good man, and told him, he had been sowing a handful of seed among his people, and had this answer,^That's well, the Lord prosper your seed and mine too, there is need enough of us both. And another worthy conformist that came privately to hear him, but was reprimanded for it by his superiors, told him afterwards with tears, that his heart was with him.
His heart was wonderfuUy enlarged in his work at this time,' the fields were white unto the harvest; and he was busy, and God did remarkably own him, setting many seals to his ministry, which much confirmed him in what he did. He hath this observable passage in his Diary, about this time, which he recorded for his after benefit, and the example of it may be instructive.—Remember that if trouble should come hereafter, for what we do now in the use of present liberty, I neither shrink from it, nor sink under it; for I do therein approve myself to God, and to my own conscience, in truth and uprightness; and the Lord whom I serve, can and will certainly both bear me out, and bring me off" with comfort in the end. I say. Remember, and forget it not, this 24th day of March, 1672-3.
It was at the beginning of this liberty, that the society at Broad Oak did commence; made up, besides their neighbourhood, of some out of Whitchurch, and Whitchurch parish, that had been Mr. Porter's people, some out of Hanmer parish, that had been Mr. Steel's, and some out of the parishes of Wem, Prees, and Ellesmere. Persons generally of very moderate and sober principles, quiet and peaceable lives, and hearty well-wishers to the king and government; and not rigid or schismatical in their separation, but willing to attend, though sometimes with difficulty and hazard, upon those administrations which they found most lively and edifying, and most helpful to them, in the great business of working out their salvation. To this society he would never call himself a pastor, nor was he willing that they should call him so; but a helper, and a minister of Christ for their good. He would say,— That he looked upon his family only as his charge, and his preaching to others was but accidental, whom if they came, he could no more turn away, than he could a poor hungry man, that should come to his door for an alms. And being a minister of Jesus Christ, he thought himself bound to preach the gospel, as he had opportunity.
[His epistolary communications, as well as his public preaching, bore upon this object, as is mani-
B Ejected from ChrisUeton, in Cheshire. He afterward* con< formed. See the Noncon. Mem. ▼. 1. p. 346. «/ tupra. o There dwelled in his parish a tanner, a very godly man, and one that had much comroanion with my father. This man, as he was very busie tawing or a hide with all his might, (not so much as turning aside his head any way.) my father, coming by accidentally, came behind him, and merrily gave him a little clap upon the back; be started; and, looking behind bim suddenly, blushed. fest from the following letter; which also corroborates the testimony borne of him as to the poor. The souls of such, he would say, are as precious as the souls of the rich.
To John Beard and Jane Comberbach,
Loving Friends;
Though the superscription be only to one of you, yet the letter is intended to you both. God having in his providence cast your lot to be fellow-servants in th same family. I hope you are, according to your opportunities, mutually helpful to each other in your way to heaven; it is a narrow way, and an up-hill way, but it is the way to life, and few find it, and fewer walk in it; if God hath given you to be of those few, he hath done that for you which should for ever engage your hearts to him, and for which you have gn*eat cause to be thankful, and to say with Judas, not Iscariot, John xiv. 22. Lord, how is it! —I doubt not but your hands are full of the employments of your particular calling, and it ought to be 80,° in obedience to the will of God appointing you to it, and that the tempter may find you busy; but it is a good question you should be often putting to yourselves,—Where is the mind now ? They only are too busy that lose God in their business, if you abide with him, and walk with him, and live to him, doing what you do in his name and fear, and as in his sight, not with eye-terviee m . men-pleaters, but in singleness of heart as to the Lord you may be assured you are, in Jesus Christ, accepted of him, and shall as certainly receive the reward of the inheritance, as any other in the world; wherefore Encourage yourselves and one another with these words. Let the things of the other world be real things in your account and esteem; see heaven and hell before you, and believe every thought, word, and work, nowy is so much seed sown that, according as it is, will be sure to come up again, either in corruption, or in life etefnal. I know not how it is with you at present, as to your liberties for worship, but you had a day of it; and, were you diligent? Have you provided meat in summer ? Did you gather food in harvest ? If aye, bless God ; if no, reflect with grief and shame, and make peace, and tip yet, and be doing ;^ it is no = small measure of guilt that rises from our neglect < of opportunities when God puts them as a price ( into our hand. I am glad to hear that you, Jane, -have been in fellowship at the table of the Lord; ; —" Sir," saith he, '* I am ashamed you should find me thus.** To whom my father said again,—" Let Christ, when he comes, find me so doing!" " What," says the man, '• doing thus?"—•• Yei," saith my father to him. " faithful in the duties of my calling.** The Tomb-stone, or. a broken and imperfect Monument, of thst worthy Man, the Rev. John Carter, p. 15. duod. 163a p See I Chron. xxii. v. 16. A valuable note upon the phnae occurs in Mr. Dibdin's Akles Altborp. v. 1. p. ix.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
77 remember the tows of God that are upon you, and also the co Yenant of God there sealed with you, the former for yonr establishment, the latter for your eooafort. And I hope that you, John, either have already or will speedily apply yourself to it, considering it is not privilege only,—if so, it were another matter,—but duty, and while you live without it, having opportunity for it, let the pretence be that it will,—awe and reverence towards it, sense »f your own unworthiness, or whatever else,—you fve in a sin of omission, and that of a known duty, I gieat doty, a sweet duty, made so by the command •f a dear and dying Redeemer, saying,—/>o this, md,— do it in remembrance of me. We commend lor love to you both. God everlasting be your Sun ind Shield, Father and Friend, Part and Portion.
Amen!
So prays. Broad Oak, Flint, Yours, in true affection, March 24, 1074-5. Philip Henry.
For John Beard,
At Mr. Bray's House,
In Worcester.'»]
Usually once a month he administered the ordinance of the Lord's supper. Some of his opportunities of that kind he sets a particular remark upon, as sweet sealing days, on which he found it good to draw near to God.
When, about the year's end, there was a general expectation of the cancelling of the indulgence, he hath this note upon a precious sabbath and sacrament day, as he calls it;—'^ Perhaps this may be the last; Fmtker, thy will he done; it is good for us to k at such uncertainties; for now we receive our liberty from our Father fresh every day, which is l)est and sweetest of all."
[In the spring and summer of 1673, he preached orer at Broad Oak, the parable of the Prodigal Son, in about forty sermons, in which it pleased the Lord vonderfully to assist and succeed him. Many who sot good to their souls by those sermons, earnestly desired the publishing of them, and he was almost persuaded; but his modesty proved invincible, and it was never done.
He preached over the several articles of the new eovenant, Hebrews viii. 10, &c. in the year 1674.
When an end was put to that gleam of liberty, which had continned about three years, he viras pleaching upon the parable of the barren fig-tree, Luke xiii. 6, &c. These three years do I come seeh-ing fruii, and observed how the word of God was foUUIed,—though not out down, yet cut short,—>in opportanities.
Ufe.0rig.lf5. mi
However, after a year or two, there was such a general connivance of authority, that the meetings grew again as full as ever, especially at Broad Oak; the neighbouring magistrates of Flintshire being very civil, and not willing to give trouble to one who was so very peaceable and obliging,—for which he would often give thanks to God, who hath the hearts of all men in his hands.^]
On the 3rd of March, 1676-7, being Saturday night, the town of Wem, in Shropshire, about six miles from him, was burnt down,* the church, market house, and about one hundred and twenty-six dwelling houses, and one man, in little more than an bourns time, the wind being exceeding violent; at which time Mr. Henry was very helpful to his friends there, both for their support under, and their improvement of, this sad providence. It was but about half a year before, that a threatening fire had broke out in that town, but did little hurt; some serious people there presently after celebrated a thanksgiving for their deliverance, in which Mr. Henry imparted to them a spiritual gft, October 3, 1676, from Zechariah iii. 2. Is not this a brand plueh-ed out of the fire ? In the close of that sermon, pressing them, from the consideration of that remarkable deliverance, to personal reformation and amendment of life ; that those who had been proud, covetous, passionate, liars, swearers, drunkards, sabbath-breakers, would be so no more; and urging Ezra ix. 13, 14. he added,—If this providence have not this effect upon you, you may in reason expect another fire; for when God judgeth, he will overcome ; and minded them of Leviticus xxvi. where it is so often threatened against those who walk contrary to God, that he would punish them yet seven times more. The remembrance of this could not but be affecting, when, in so short a time after, the whole town was laid in ruins. The first time he went thither after that calamity, a neighbouring justice, having notice of it, sent to forbid him to preach, to his own grief, as well as to the grief of many others, who came expecting. But, saith he in his Diary, there was a visible sermon before us, the ruins preaching, that sin is an evil thing, and God a terrible God. However, a few days after he got an opportunity of preaching to them a word in season, which some will not forget, from Hosea vi. l.-^Come, and let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn ■ ■ . And, at the return of the year, when the town was in the re-building, he gave them another very suitable sermon, from Proverbs iii. 33. The curse of the Lordis in the house of the wiched, but he hlesseth the habitation of the just. Though it be rising again, saith he in his Diary, out of its ashes, yet the burning of it should not be forgotten,
tbe History of Wem, by the Rev. S. Garbet, A. M. p. 283, I fcc. Oct ISia
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY. especially not the sin that kindled it. He often prayed for them, that the fire might be a refining fire.
In the years 1677, 1678, and 1679, in the course of his ministry at Broad Oak, he preached over the Ten Commandments, and largely opened from other texts of Scripture, the duties required, and sins forbidden, in each commandment. For though none delighted more than he in preaching Christ and gospel-grace; yet he knew that Christ came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfil; and that though, through grace, we are not under the law as a covenant, yet we are under it as a rule; under the law to Christ. He was very large and particular in pressing second-table duties, as essential to Christianity. We have known those, saith he, that have called preaching on such subjects, good moral preaching ; but let them call it as they will, I am sure it is necessary, and as much now as ever. How earnestly would he press upon the people the necessity of righteousness and honesty in their whole conversation. A good Christian, he used to say, will be a good husband, a good father, and a good master, and a good subject, and a good neighbour, and so in other relations. How often would he urge to this purpose, that it is the will and command of the great God, the character of all the citizens of Sion, the beauty and ornament of our Christian profession ; and the surest way to thrive and prosper in the world. Honesty is the best policy. He would say, that these are things in which the children of this world are competent judges. They that know not what belongs to faith, and repentance and prayer, yet know what belongs to the making of an honest bargain; they are also parties concerned, and oftentimes are themselves careful in these things; and, therefore, those who profess religion, should walk very circumspectly, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed, nor religion wounded through their sides.
[How sensible he was of the dislike frequently felt to practical preaching, as well as of the importance of such preaching, appears in the following extract Having explained, in a course of sermons, the Redeemer's sayings, as recorded in the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of Matthew's Gospel, he pressed, in his last discourse, the importance, the necessity, oi doing y as well as hearing, from the divine assurance,—that a stormy day is coming shortly, when hearers only will be found fools, and suffer loss; whereas hearers and doers will be owned for wise people, and will have the comfort of it. What ado, he remarks, some one will object, is here t Sincerity is all in all. It is all in all our prayers; all in all oar tears; all in all our services. It is all to Go<l,~that which God accounts all. Sincerity is gospel perfection. The Dead Saint speaking to Saints and Sinners living, by Samuel Bolton, D. D. p. 298. fol. 1657.
P. Henrj. Orig. MS. *
l/e that backbites with bis toague wovnds four At once; he about doing; doing! If I had preached, he proceeds, these sermons, I know where, I ,had certainly been called a legal preacher, if not a papist, a Jesuit, a preacher of works ; and some would have said, we will never hear him again. If to preach on these things be legal preaching, then our Lord himself was a legal preacher, for you see they were hit sayings all along that I took for my text to each sermon. Such a preacher as he was, may I be, in my poor measure. I cannot write after a better copy. I cannot tread in better steps. His sayings must be done, as well as heard, that we may answer his end in saying them, which was to promote holiness,—that we may approve ourselves his true kin-dred,~that God may be gIorified,-^that our profession may be beautified,—and that our building may stand. But they must be done aright. The tree must be good. All must be done by faith, and in the name of the Lord Jesus. Hebrews xi. 6. Colos-sians iii. 17.—^with evenness and constancy,—with humility and 8elf-denial,-~in charity,—and with perseverance, and continuance.
Do all you do as those who are under a covenant of grace, which, though it requires perfect, yet accepts of sincere, obedience.^ While the hand is doing, let the eye be looking at Jesus Christ, both for assistance and acceptance. This is the life of faith. Be resolved in duty. Look often at the re-compence of reward. ■
Thus he preached, and his constant practice was a comment upon it. One thing I remember, he was more than ordinarily enlarged in the pressing of, which was,—^uponthe ninth commandment,— to speak evil of no man, from Titus iii. 2. If we can say no good of persons, we must say nothing of them. He gave it as a rule.—Never to speak of any one's faults to others, till we have first spoken of them to the offender himself. He was himself an eminent ex<-ample of this rule. Some that have conversed much with him, have said. That they never heard him speak evil of any body ; nor could he bear to hear any spoken evil of, but often drove away a backbiting tongue with an angry countenance.'' He was known to be as faithful a patron of offenders before others, as he was a faithful reprover of them to themselves.
Whenever he preached of moral duties, he would always have something of Christ in his sermon; either his life, as the great pattern of the duty, or his love, as the great motive to it; or his merit, as making atonement for the neglect of it.
[Thus, in pressing moral duties, he observed that, wounds the good name of his neighbour, which is dearer to him than the apple or his eye; he wounds the name of God, religion suffers, when tliose who profess it thus backbite each other; he wounds his own soul, brings the guilt of a great sin upon his own soul, which he must certainly answer for; he wounds love in him that hears it, so that the esteem of his brother is lessened.^P. Henry. Mrs. SavagesBIS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY. m.To an acceptable act of obedience, it is necessary lat the principle be right, which is a habit of true race in the heart. There must also be a knowledge r, and respect to, the will of God, as well as free-9m, cheerfulness, and delight in doing it, in oppo-tion to forced obedience. We are not to be haled ) duty as a bear to a stake; but we are to do it >lnntarily and pleasantly. There must also be ith * in Jesus Christ, both for strength to do, and r acceptance when we have done. And, withal, single eye to God's glory.* With a view to chronological arrangement, the irrative may be here interrupted by the introduo-»n of the following epistle.
I have lately met, remarks Mr. Henry's biographer, ith a letter of his to a couple related to him, who, I a Tery short time, had buried all their children !* the small-pox to their great grief; it was in the ^ar 1679. What comfort and counsels he adminis-led to them, may be of use to others in their afflic-ons, and, therefore, I shall .transcribe the whole tter, though it be long.
Dear Cousins;
This is to you both, whom God hath made one in le conjugal relation, and who are also one in the resent aflliction ; only to signify to you that we do eartily sympathize with you in it. The trial is, in-eed, sharp, and there will be need of all the wisdom nd grace you have, and of all the help of friends 9n can get, both to bear, and to improve, it aright. on must bear it with silence and submission. Surety is meet to be taid unto God, I have borne chastise-eui. He is Sovereign Lord of all, and may do with s, and ours, as pleaseth him. It is not for the clay to aannel with the potter. It was a mercy you had chil-ren, and comfort with them so long; it is a mercy tal yet you have one another,' and your children are (rt lost, but gone before, a little before, whither you Minelves are hastening after. And if a storm be ming, (as God grant it be not,) it is best with lem that first put into the harbour. Your children re taken away from the evil to come, and you must It moum as they that have no hope. Sensible you innot but be, but dejected and sullen you must It be; that will but put more bitterness into the ip/ and make way for another, perhaps a sharper, loke. You must not think, and I hope yon do not, lat there cannot be a sharper stroke ; for God hath lany arrows in his quiver; he can heat the furnace w Look, what oyle is to the wheels, what weights are to the odt, wtiat wiDp are to the bird, what sa Sls are to the ship,— at/mtk U to an religious duties and services. HeaTen on Earth, r Tbomas Brooks, duod. 16&7. p. 342. « P. Henry. Orig. lf& f V God should have riven the tree asunder, I meane, severed m one IhMi another, it must have been taken thankAiUy; but, och more, when be leaveth the tree, and taketh but the fhiit tyacs's Ctviillaii Lettert, ut iwpra, p. 137. seven times hotter, and again, and agin, seven times hotter, till he hath consumed us; and if he should do so, yet still we must say, he hath punished us less than our iniquities have deserved. For examples of patience in the like kind, we have twoeminent ones in the book of God, those are Job and Aaron; of the latter it is said, Leviticus x. 3. He held his peace ; and that which quieted him, was what his brother Moses said to him,—TAt is that which the Lord hath said, I will be sanctified; and if God be sanctified, Aaron is satisfied; if God have glory from it, Aaron hath nothing to say against it. Of the former it is said. Job i. 20, he fell down, but it was to worship; and we are told how he expressed himself, The Lord gave, Sfc. He acknowledgeth God in all: and, indeed, after all, this is it (my dear cousins) that you must satisfy yourselves with under the sad providence, that the Lord hath done it, and the same will that ordered the thing itself' ordered all the circumstances of it; and who are we that we should dispute with our Maker? Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth, but let not the thing form" ed say to him that formed it, — Why hast thou made me thus ? And as for the improvement of this afilic tion, (which, I hope, both of you earnestly desire, for it is a great loss to lose such a providence, and not to be made better by it,) I conceive there are four lessons which it should teach you; and they are good lessons, and should be well learned, for the advantage of them is unspeakable. 1. It should for ever imbitter sin to you; you know what she said to the prophet, 1 Kings xvii. 18. Art thou come to call my sins to remembrance, and to slay my son ? It is sin, sin that is the old kill-friend, the Jonah that hath raised this storm, the Achan that hath troubled your house; then how should you grow in your hatred of it, and endeavours against it, that you may be the death of that which hath been the death of your dear children ? I say the death of it, for nothing less will satisfy the true penitent, than the death of such a malefactor. 2. It should be a spur * to you, to put you on in heaven's way; it may be you were growing amiss in duty, beginning to slack your former pace in religion, and your heavenly Father saw it, and was grieved at it, and sent this sad providence to be your monitor, to tell you, you should remember whence you are fallen, and do your first works, and be more humble, and holy, and heavenly, self-denying, and watchful, abounding always in the work of the Lord. Oh, blessed are they that come out of I The will of God's purpose is the rule or all his actions; the will of his precept is the rule of all our ac Uons. P. Henry. Orig.MS. a Therefore, sickness, weepings, sorrow, mourning, and, in con. elusion, all adveisities, be unto us as ipmrM; with the which, we being dull horses, or, rather, very asses, are forced not to remain long in this transitory way. A Meditation toucbitk% K^'^txAX^^ made by Lady Mary's Gtace, \54a. S\iypt*% lSj«ift\. >^wBuN. "i. ^. 552. oct ed. 1822.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY. sucb a faraace thus refined; they will say hereafter, it was a happy day for them that ever they were put in. 3. You must learn by it, as long as you live, io keep your affections in due bounds towards creature-comforts. How hard is it to love, and not to over love; to delight in children, or yoke-fellows, and not over delight; now God is a jealous God, and will not give his glory to any other; and our access this way doth often provoke him to remove that mercy from us, which we do thus make an idol of; and our duty is to labour, when he doth so, to get that matter amended, and to rejoice in all our enjoyments with trembling, and as if we rejoiced not. 4. It should be a means of drawing your hearts and thoughts more upwards and homewards; 1 mean your everlasting home. You should be looking oftener now than before into the other world. / shall go to him, saith David, when his little son was gone before. It is yet but a little while ere all the things of time shall be swallowed up in eternity. And the matter is not gpreat whether we or ours die first, while we are all dying; in the midst of life we are in death :— What manner of persons then ought we to be !^ Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, be your support under, and do you good by, this dispensation, and give yon a name better than that of sons and daughters. We are daily mindful of you at the throne of grace, in our poor measure, and dearly recommended to you, &c.^
In answer to the inquiry,—How are we to glorify God in our afflictions ? he replied, Own and acknowledge sin to be tlie cause, and give glory to God. Own him as the author of your sufferings; acknowledge the mercies left, with all thankfulness. See what has been amiss, and when you have found it, turn again unto the Lord.^ Glorify him by patience, and quietness, and cheerful submission unto his will—Ply the throne of grace. Believe, and wait for a good issue. Hold fast your integrity.*
On another occasion it being asked,—When are we inordinately dejected and disquieted under afflicting providences? he answered,—^When we grieve beyond the nature of the thing for which we grieve. When we are wearied and faint in our b 2 Peter iii. IL It it a word of admiration.—What man Der of holi Deas should we \ue,—looking/or Mdkasttmiig mttto tho eoming of iki dag of th§ Lord ; that is, despatching and doing all for our lives against that day. Our lives should, as it were, be in a hurry after the day of judgment, as those that are to remove at quarter day, they hasten to do all against the time. Dr. Goodwin. Works, v. 5. 30. fol. 1704. e Transposed firom p. 177. Life. 3d. edit
Get repentance by an affliction, and then you may look on It as traffic, and not as a trouble, like a merchant's voyage, which hath pain in the way, but treasure in the end. No afflictions can hurt him that is penitent Bishop Reynolds on Hosea. Works, p. 732. ut njna.
P. Henry, from Mr& Savage's MS. r/b/d. minds. When we grieve as those that have no hope. When we are unfitted for the duties of our calling. When we are hindered from worshipping and rejoicing in God. When our grief exceeds bounds,—in continuing too long. 1 Samuel xvi. 1.^
In the year 1680 he preached over the doctrines of faith and repentance from several texts of Scripture. He used to say, that he had been told concerning the famous Mr. Dod,^ that some called him in scorn, faith and repentance; because he insisted so much upon those two,** in all his preaching. But, saith he, if this be to be vile, I will be yet more vile; for faith and repentance are all in all in Christianity.
[Illustrating the nature of faith, he would observe that,—^We must take hold of Christ, as a man that is sinking in deep waters takes hold of a bough, or cord, or plank. We must see him to be the only way, and rest on him accordingly. We must see ourselves pursued by the justice of God, and sec him to be the only altar. As the guilty malefactor took hold of the city of refuge. As a besieged garrison takes hold of terms when offered. As a man takes hold of an arm that is going to strike him, so must we resort to and accept of Christ. Plainly thus; there are three things in believing,—The sight and sense of our sin and misery,~Assent to the testimony given in the word concerning Christ, believing that though I am a great sinner, yet he is a great Saviour,~Application of him to ourselves, consenting to take him to be ours, and we to be his,—-to be ruled by him, and saved by him.*]
Concerning repentance he hath sometimes said, If I were to die in the pulpit, I would desire to die preaching repentance; as if I die out of the pulpit, I would desire to die practising repentance: And he had often this saying concerning repentance. He that repents every day, for the sins of every day,* when he comes to die, will have the sins but of one day to repent of.* Even reckonings make long friends. [Speaking of Luke xxii. 62. concerning Peter, he would say,—Peter's sin is recorded for our admonition, his repentance for our imitation.*"]
[On this Christian duty he further remarks. It is not required to make us precious to Christ, but to make Christ precious to us, and when it does that, ff Nat. 1540. Ob. 1645. et. 96. Ctaric*s LiTes, annexed to his Martyrologie. p. 166, kc. ut ntpra. h Mr. Hieron, noticing his own preaching, thus expressed himself. *' I have but two things to teach; faith towards Ood, and a holy life. In one of these two I must still insist." Woits. p. 333. foL 16M. i From Mrs. Savage's MS. k The dailiness of sin must be bewailed with the dailinea of sorrow. Bishop Taylor. Cited in his Life prefixed to Bishop Heber's edition of his Works p. clvii.«/ $uprm.
1 Sayth Seint Augustine, penance of good and humble folk si the penance of every day. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales by T. Tyrwhitt, Esq. vol. a. p. 383. 4to. 179& The Personcs Tale.
n Diary, Orlg. MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
81 then are we hnmbled to divine acceptation, though not to divine satisfaction. Sorrow is sin's echo, but as the echo answers the voice best where there are broken walls and ruined buildings to return it, so does sorrow when reverberated by a broken ruined heart. That eye weeps most which looks oftenest on the Sun of Righteousness." Thongh we cannot wash in innocency, yet we must wash in penitency.^ The ingredients of true repentance are,—hearty sorrow, particular confession, faith in Christ, and general amendment When we set our sins before our faces in repentance and confession, God casts them behind his back in pardon and remission; but if we carelessly cast them behind our back, God justly sets them before his face.^i]
That year also, and the year 1681, he preached over the duties of hearing the word and prayer; of the former, from the parable of the four sorts of gronnd; of the latter, from Luke xi. 1, &c. when he preached over the Lord's Prayer in aboTC thirty excellent and elaborate discourses. He looked «pon the Lord's Prayer to be not only a directory or pattern' for prayer, but, according to the advice of the Assembly of Divines, proper to be used as a form f and, accordingly, he often used it both in public and in his family. And as he thought it was an error on the one hand to lay so much stress upon it as some do, who think no solemn prayer accepted, nor any solemn ordinance or administration of worship complete, without it, and so repeat it five or six times, and perhaps oftener, at one meeting; so he thought it an error on the other hand not to use it at all; since it is a prayer, a compendious, comprehensive prayer, and may be of use to us, at least as other'^ripture prayers; but he thought it a much greater error to be angry at those who do use it, to judge and censure them, and for no other reason to conceive prejudices against them and their ministry. A great strait, saith he poor ministers are in, when some will not hear them, if they do not use the Lord's Prayer, and others will not hear them if they do.' What is to be done in this case? We must walk according to the light we have, and approve ourselves to God, either in using or not using it, and wait for the day when God will end the matter; which I hope he will do in his own due time.
He vras in the close of his exposition of the Lord's Prayer, when a dark cloud was brought upon B P. Henry. Com. PI. Book. Orig. MS.
• P. Henty. Mem. of Mrs. Savage, uinpra. p. 317.
P P. Henry. Orig. MS.
P. Henry. Life of Lieut IlUdge. by Matt. Henry. Misc. Works, vid. p0$L
T See '* A Guide to goe to God, or an explanation of the perfect Pattemc of Prayer, the Lord's Prayer," by [Dr.] W. Gouge. 4to. 1«36.
See the Larger Catechism argued upon by the Assembly of Divines. 4to. 187. And their Directory Tor public worship, ed.
1793. p. 539. t See Letters to and from Dr. Doddridge, published by Mr. Sted- I o his assemblies, and he was necessitated to contract his sails.
[In the year 1G80, his son and biographer, Mr. Matthew Henry, having nearly completed his eighteenth year, was conducted to London, together with his relation and friend, Mr. Robert Bosier, and placed under the care of that '* holy, faithful minister, Mr. Thomas Doolittle, who then lived at Islington.''" This event gave rise to the following letters: From the Rev, Philip Henry, to Mr, Matthew Henry,
My Dear Child;
Your letter to me I received, and your mother also hers. In the former, an account of your being busy, at which we were glad ; in the latter, of your being not well, and that troubles us; but we are in hope, that this night's post will bring us better tidings. However, we desire to acquiesce in the will of God, in whose hand our timet are, and at whose disposal are all our ways; who doth always that which is just and righteous, always that which is best to those who love him. I am at Boreatton, where I expected your mother this morning, as we appointed, but, instead of coming herself, she sends Roger with your two letters, and her desire to me to answer them from hence by way of Shrewsbury. They are all well, blessed be God, both there and here. My Lord Paget intended to have gone from hence to-morrow, which hastened me hither a week sooner than I expected, and caused a failure at home yesterday, no chapel-day ; but his stay, now, is till next week. I am comforted, that you acknowledge God in your distemper, and are prepared to receive, with patience, what he appoints. The two last subjects we were upon when you left Broad Oak,—faith and repentance,—I hope were made profitable to you. He that truly repents of sin, and truly believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing can come amiss to him ; things present are his, things to come are his; life, death ; this world, and the other world. Though you are at a distance from us, you are near to him, who, according to his promise, is a present help, to those that fear him, in every time of need. Our poor prayers for you, you may be sure, are not, shall not, be wanting,—that, if the Lord please, you may have health to ply the work you came about, that you man. pp, 14.15. and Dr. Doddridge's Exposition on Luke xi. 1,13. n.d.
Life of Matt Henry, p. 2S. «/ npra. Itmay be thought, indeedt that he who taught his daughter Hebrew at seven years of age, had little occasion to send his son from under the paternal roof, in order to prepare him for the church; but Philip Henry was • public spirited man, and he found that bis (Vequent labours in the ministry were incompatible with the constant attentions whicn education indispensably requires. Hist of Dissenters, v. 2. p. 291. A list of Mr. Doolittle's pupiht may be seen inDT.TQM\TSiLVcC%>\\LV torical View.p. 584.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY. may serve the will of God in your generation; if otherwise, that you may be satisfied in what he doth; and so we, by his grace, shall endeavour to be also. Commend us to Mr. Doolittel, and his wife, whose tender love to you, and care concerning you, we shall always acknowledge with all thankfulness; also to Cousin Robert,"" who, I know, will help to bear your burthen. The Lord Almighty bless yon, my dear child, and cause his face to shine upon you, and send us good news in your next concerning you. Amen. This, from Your loving father, Aug. 16,1680. P. H.'
From the Rev, Philip Henry, to Mr, Robert Rosier, August 28,1680. Dear Cousin; I received yours, of August 24 ; the former part whereof, which was concerning yourself, gave cause for a great deal of joy and thankfulness to our good God, that you are so well pleased in your present circumstances of improvement; and, I hope, will be so more and more. I like it well, that you are put upon the exercise of your gifts, which is the ready way to increase, and add to them ; for, to him that hath, shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly ; and, I doubt not, but, if you set about it, in the strength of the divine grace, and not in your own strength, you will find that grace both ready to you, and sufl Rcient for you. Your Concordance I forbear to send till I hear from you again. Notes upon the Galatians, &c. I have none yet, else you should have them. Strive not to be large, but concise, and close, and substantial, wherein, here, yon wanted an example. I pray, be careful, in a special manner, about secret communion; for, you know, as that is kept up, or falls, accordingly the soul prospers. Do not over-tire yourself with study, especially by candle; fair and softly goes far. Though you do well to bewail your loss of precious time, yet, blessed be God for what you have redeemed; and, though it is true, as things are with you, now is your time, if ever, to be busy; yet health and strength must be considered, and nothing done to over-drive.
The latter part of your letter, which was concerning Matthew, gave us some trouble, yet I thank you that you were so large and particular in it. We have freely yielded him up, and our interest in liim, as well as we can, to our Heavenly Father; and his will be done ! I have written to him, as you will see,—if he be willing and able, and there be cause, with advice of friends,—to hasten home; and, if he must so leave you, it will be an instance,—^that man purposes, but God disposes.
Present my dear love and respects to Mr. Doolit-
Bobert Boater
Oriff. MS. tel, and to his wife, to whom I am much obliged for their kindness, which I shall ever acknowledge, whatever the event be. Fail not to write as there may be occasion. Here is room only to tell you, that we are all remembered to you; and, particularly, that I am, Your true friend, P. H.
This was intended for the superscription, but the paper being thin, I chose to enclose it. My two last sabbaths' absence hence, so quickly after the former three, at London, though I designed it not, hath caused reports, as if we had quite done, but I hope it is not so. To-morrow, God willing, we shall set the plough in again, begging of God, that late intermissions may quicken desires, and make the word so much the sweeter. Concerning Matthew I know not what to say more than I have said. The Lord prepare and fit us for evil tidings! I will not say, our life is bound up in the life of the lad, but much of the comfort of our life is; and yet. Father, thy will be done ! Our cisterns may, and will, dry up, first or last, but our Fountain remains for ever."]
CHAPTER VII.
THB REBUKES HE LAY UNDER, AT BROAD OAK; BETWEEN THE
TEARS 18S0 AND 1687.
In the beginning of the year 1681, in April and May, the country was greatly afflicted and threatened by an extreme drought; there was no rain for several weeks, the grass failed. Com, that was sown, languished ; and much that was intended to be sown, could not. The like had not been known for many years. It was generally apprehended that a dearth would ensue, especially in that country, which is for the most part dry. And now it was time to seeh the Lord; and, according to hts own appointment, to ash of him rain in the season thereof. Several serious thinking people being together at the funeral of that worthy minister of Jesus Christ, Mr. Maiden, it was there said, how requisite it was that there should be some time set apart on purpose for fasting and prayer, in a solemn assembly, upon this occasion. Thomas MilUngton, of Weston, in Hodnet Parish, in Shropshire, desired it might be at his house ; and Tuesday, June 14, was Uie day pitched upon. The connivance of authority was presumed upon, because no disturbance of meetings was heard of at London, or any where else. Mr. Henry was desired to come and give his assistance at that day\s work. He asked upon what terms they stood with their neighbouring justices, and it was answered,— " Well enough." The drought continuing in extremity, some that had not used to come to such meet-
X Orig. MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
83 ings, yet came thither, upon the apprehensions they had of the threatening judgment which the country was under. Mr. Edward Bury,* of Bolas, well known by several useful books he hath published, prayed ; Mr. Henry prayed, and preached on Psalm Ixvi. 18.— If I regard iniqmty in my heart, the Lord will not hear me; whence his doctrine was, •That iniquity, regarded in the heart, will certainly spoil the success of prayer. When he was in the midst of his sermon, closely appljdng this truth, SirT. V.»» of Hodnet, and Mr. M.« of Ightfield, two justices of the peace for Shropshire, with several others of their retinue, came suddenly upon them; disturbed them, set guards upon the house door, and came in themselves, severely rallied all they knew, reflected upon the late Honourable House of Commons, and the vote they passed concerning the present nnseasonableness of putting the laws in execution against Protestant Dissenters, as if, in so voting, they had acted beyond their sphere, as they did who took away the life of King Charles the First They diverted themselves with very abusive and unbecoming talk; swearing, and cursing, and reviling bitterly. Being told the occasion of the meeting was to seek to turn away the anger of God from us in the present drought, it was answered;—"Such meetings as these were the cause of God's anger.'' While they were thus entertaining themselves, their clerks took the names of those that were present, in all, about one hundred and fifty, and so dismissed them for the present. Mr. Henry hath noted, in the account he kept of this event, that the justices came to this good work from the ale-house upon Frees Heath, about two miles off: to which, and the bowling-green adjoining, they, with other justices, gentlemen, and clergymen, of the neighbourhood, had long before obliged themselves to come every Tuesday, during the sunmier time, under the penalty of twelve-pence a time if they were absent; and there to spend the day in drinking and bowling; which is thought to be as direct a violation of the law of the land; viz, the Statute of ddd Henry YIII. cap. 9. " for debarring unlawful games,'' which was never fet repealed, as the meeting was of the Statute vf 22d Car. II.; and, as much more to the dis-boDOur of God, and the scandal of the Christian l»fofession, as cursing, and swearing, and drunkenness, are worse thah praying, and singing psalms, ind bearing the word of God.'' It is supposed the iostiees knew of the meeting before, and might have
1700. Friday. May U). This week, old Mr. Bury, of Bolas, in >lvofiriiire, was tniried, an aged nonconrormist, some time a fellow-iaboorcr and suf Terer with my dear father, now gone to his reward; —few left of the old generation. Lord, pour out of thy Spirit on aur fom and our daughters! Mrs. Savage's Diary. Orig. MS. Mr. Bury was bom A. D. 1616. He died May 5, 1700. Noncon. Mem. V 3.p 141,4cc. k Sir Thomas Vernon. Orig. MS. P. Henry. c Charles MUnwariDg, Esq. P. Henry. Orig. MS. o 2
I prevented it by the least intimation; but they were willing to take the opportunity of making sport to themselves, and trouble to their neighbours. After the feat done, they returned back to the ale-house, and made themselves and their companions merry with calling over the names they had taken, making their reflections as they saw cause, and recounting the particulars of the exploit. There was one of the company, whose wife happened to be present at the meeting, and her name taken among the rest; with which upbraiding him, he answered, that she had been better employed than he was, and if Mr. Henry might be admitted to preach in a church, he would go a great many miles to hear him. For which words he was forthwith expelled their company, and never more to show his face again at that bowling-green ; to which he replied,—^if they had so ordered long ago, it had been a great deal the better for him and his family. Two days after they met again at Hodnet, where, upon the oath of two witnesses, who, as was supposed, were sent on purpose to inform, they signed and sealed two records of conviction. By one record, they convicted the master of the house, and fined him £20, and £5 more as constable of the town that year; and, with him, all the persons present, whose names they had taken, and fined them 6s» a piece, and issued out warrants accordingly. By another record, they convicted the two ministers, Mr. Bury and Mr. Henry. The Act makes it only punishable to preach, or teach, in any such conventicle; and yet they fined Mr. Bury £20, though he only prayed, and did not speak one word in the way either of preaching or teaching, not so much as,—" Let us pray;" however, they said, '^ Praying was teaching ;*'« and, right or wrong, he must be fined ; though his great piety, peaceable-ness, and usefulness, besides his deep poverty, one would think, might have pleaded for him, against so palpable a piece of injustice. They took £7 oil' from him, and laid it upon others, as they saw cause; and, for the remaining £13, he being utterly unable to pay it, they took from him, by distress, the bed which he lay upon, with blanket and rug; also, another feather-bed, nineteen pair of sheets, most of them new; of which he could not prevail to have so much as one pair returned for him to lie in; also, books, to the value of £5, besides brass and pewter. And, though he was at this time perfectly innocent of that heinous crime of preaching and teaching, with which he was charged, (for so the record runs i See Baxter's Eng. Noncon. p. 183.4to. 1090.
In the case of Robert Collins, A. M. it was 'contended, that '*presbyteriao preaching and praying was all one; for they, in their prayers, would undertake to teach Almighty God." Tlie counsel for the prosecutor prayed the bench to call for a dictionary, and said, *' There they would find, that prgedicare and orare were the same." See the Noncon.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY. again and again, concerning Mr. Henry and Mr.
Bury, Quod ad tunc et ibidem precaverunt, predieaverunt et docuerunt,) yet he had no way to right himself, but by appealing to the justices themselves in quarter sessions, who would be sure to affirm their own decree, as the justices in Montgomeryshire had done not long before in a like case, especially when it was to recover to themselves treble costs. So the good man sat down with his loss, and took joyfully the spoiling of his goods ; knowing in himself, that he had, tit heaven a better and a more enduring substance.
But Mr. Henry being the gatest criminal,' and having done the most mischief, must needs be animadverted upon accordingly; and, therefore he was fined £40; the pretence of which was this: In the year 1679, October 16, Mr. Kynaston, of Oatly, a justice of peace in Shropshire, meeting him and some others coming, as he supposed, from a conventicle, he was pleased to record their conviction, upon the notorious evidence and circumstances of the fact. The record was filed at Salop the next sessions after, but no notice was ever sent of it, either to Mr. Henry, or the justices of Flintshire; nor any prosecution upon it, against any of the parties charged; (the reason of which, Mr. Henry, in a narrative B he wrote of this affair, supposeth to be not only the then favourable posture of public affiairs towards dissenters, but also the particular prudence and lenity of Mr. Kynaston;) so that, having never smarted for this, he could not be supposed to be deterred from the like offence ; nor, if he were wronged in that first conviction, had he ever any opportunity of making his appeal. However, the justices being resolved he should have summum juSf thought that first record sufficient to give denomination to a second offence, and so he came to be fined double. This conviction, according to the direction of the Act, they certified to the next adjoining justices of Flintshire, who had all along carried themselves with great temper and moderation towards Mr. Henry, and had never given him any disturbance; though, if they had been so minded, they had not wanted opportunities; but they were now neccjisitated to execute the sentences of the Shropshire justices. It was much pressed upon him to pay the fine, which might prevent his own loss and the justices' trouble. But he was not willing to do it, partly, because he would gve no f See an Account of the Rev. John Baily. Mather's History of New England, book iii. p. 333 ; and Middleton*8 Biog. Evang. v. 4. p. 103. oct. 1786. r This MS. Is entitled, *• An Account of the Proceedings against the Rct. Philip Henry, and others, for Preaching and Praying in the House of Mr. Thomas MiUington, of Weston, in the I'arish of Hodnet. in the County of Salop, in the reign of Charles II. in the year I68L** It is in the hand-writing of Mr. Henry, and ifomemed by Mr. Witton. -ft TA/s refusal is thought and termed contempt, stubbornness. encouragement to such prosecutions, nor voluntarily reward the informers for that which he thought they should rather be punished for; and partly because he thought himself vrronged in the doubling of the fine.** Whereupon his goods were distrained upon, and carried away; in the doing of which many passages occurred which might be worth the noting, but, that the repetition of them would perhaps grate, and give offence to some, lict it therefore suffice, waving the circumstances, to remember only that their warrant, not giving them authority to break open doors, nor their watchfulness getting them an opportunity to enter the house, they carried away about thirty-three cart-loads of goods without doors, com cut upon the ground, hay, coals, &c. This made a great noise in the country, and raised the indignation of many against the decrees which prescribed this grievousness; while Mr. Henry bore it with his usual evenness and serenity of mind, not at all moved or disturbed by it. He did not boast of his sufferings, or make any great matter of them; but would often say,—Alas, this is nothing to what others suffer, nor to what we ourselves may suffer before we die! And yet he rejoiced, and blessed God tliat it was not for debt, or for evil doing, that his goods were carried away. —And, saith he, while it is for well doing that we suffer, they cannot harm us. Thus he vnites in his Diary upon it ;~How oft have we said that changes are at the door; but, blessed be God, there is no sting in this! He frequently expressed the assurance he had, that, whatever damage he sustained, —God is able to make it up again. And, as he used to say,—Though we may be losers/or Christ, yet we shall not be losers by him in the end. He had often said, that his preaching was likely to do the most good, when it was sealed to by suffering; and, if this be the time, saith he, welcome the will of God; even this also shall turn to the furtherance of the gospel of Christ Bene agere et male pati vere Christianum est}
Soon after this, was the assizes for Flintshire, held at Mold, where Sir George Jeffries,^ afterwards Lord Chancellor, then Chief Justice of Chester, sat Judge. He did not, in private conversation, seem to applaud what was done in this matter, so as was expected; whether out of a private pique against some that had been active in it, or for what other reason is not known; but it was said, he pleasantly and what not. But let Ood and |he world judge. It Is supposed the easier they come by the fines, the likelier they will be to come again. Besides, as yet, the general practice of good people throughout the nation is to refuse payment, and to suffer distress, though it be found, for the most part, to inflame the reclconing. P. Henry. Orig. MS. i Appendix, No. XVI. See 1 Pet il. 30. k See Granger's Biog. Hist. v. 3. p. 368, and the Life of Lord North, 4to. 1742. p. 209, &c.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
86 asked some of tlie gentlemen, by what new law they pressed carts, as they passed upon their occasions along the road, to carry away goods distrained for a coo Tentiele ? It was also said, that he spoke with lome respect of Mr. Henry; saying, he Jcnew him, and his character, well, and that he was a great friend of his mother's, (Mrs. Jeffries of Acton, near Wrex-kam, a very pious, good woman,) and that sometimes, at his mother's request, Mr. Henry had examined him in his learning, when he was a schoolboy, and had commended his proficiency. And it was much wondered at hy many, that, of all the times Sir George Jeffries went that circuit, though it is well enough known what was his temper, and what the temper of that time, yet he never sought aoy occasion agnst Mr. Henry, nor took the occa-sions that were offered, nor countenanced any trouble intended him, though he was the only noncon-fonnist in Flintshire. One passage I remember, not improper to be mentioned ; there had been an agreement among some ministers, (I think it began in the West of England, where Mr. Allen * was,) to spend some time, either in secret, or in their families, or both, between six and eight o'clock every Monday morning. In prayer for the church of God, and for the land and nation, more fully and particularly than at other times, and to make that their special errand at the throne of grace; and to engage as many of their praying friends as ever they could to the observance of it. This had been communicated to Mr. Henry, by some of his friends at London, and he punctually observed it in his own practice, I believe, for many years. He alsd men-tioned it to some of his acquaintance, who did in Gke manner observe it. It happened that one in Denbighshire,*" to whom he had communicated it, was so well pleased with it, that he wrote a letter of it to a friend of his at a distance; which letter happened to fall into hands that perverted it, and made information upon it, against the writer and receiver of the letter, who were bound over to the Assizes, and great suspicions Sir George Jeffries had, that it was a branch of the presbyterian plot," and rallied the parties accused severely.
It appeared, either by the letter, or by the con-fesnon of the parties, that they received the project firom Mr. Henry, which, it was greatly feared, would bring him into trouble; but Sir George, to the admiration of many, let it fall,° and never inquired farther into it. It seems, there are some men, whose I The Rev. Joseph AUeine. Nat. 1633; ob. Nov. 1688. See his Life and Lettets, duod. 1671; lately reprinted.
■ Mr. AmtmM Lewid. BfS. See mif, p. 29.
A See Baxter Reliq: part Ui. p. I8ff, &c. Various curious pamphlets were originated by the accusation; particulariy the Horrid bio of MaaatcMiHr, the Second Part, 4to. I68i : and *' No Protestant Plot. in Thfve Parts,'* 4to. 1681,1688.
At the same time, be (the judge) caused Blr. Ambrose Lewis, us old school-BBBflter at Wrexham, in Denbighshire, a worthy ways 90 please the Lord, that he makes even their enemies to he at peace with them; and there is nothing lost hy trusting in God.
Mr. Henry, at the next assizes after he was distrained upon, was presented by one of the high constables,—1. For keeping a conventicle at his house ; and, 2. For saying,—That the law for suppressing conventicles ought not to be obeyed, and that there was never a tittle of the word of God in it. As to this latter presentment, it was altogether false. He had, indeed, in discourse with the high constable, when he insisted so much upon the law, which required him to be so rigorous in the prosecution, objected,—That all human laws were not to be obeyed, merely because they were laws. But, as to any such reflections upon the law he suffered by, he was far from it, and had prudence enough to keep silence at that time; for it was an evil time when so many were made offenders for a word. But these presentments met with so little countenance from Judge Jeffries, that Mr. Henry only entered his appearance in the prothonotary's office, and they were no more heard of; wherein he acknowledged the hand of God, who tumeth the hearts of the children of men as tfie Hvulets of water.
As to what was taken fiom him by the distress, they who took it made what markets they pleased of it, payed those they employed, and, what the remainder was, is not known for certain ; but, it was said, that the following summer about £27 was paid to Sir T. v., of which, and Uie rest that was levied in other places, which amounted to a considerable sum, it was credibly reported, and I have not heard it contradicted, that neither the king nor the poor had their share, which, by the Act, is to be two-thirds, nor the informers all theirs neither; but, people said, the gentlemen had occasion for it all. But, as they that had it were never the richer for it, so he that lost it would often say,—That he found that God did so abundantly bless the remainder to him, that he was never the poorer; which he would mention for the encouragement of his friends, not to balk duty, as he used to express it, for fear of suffering.
In the same year, 1681, happened a public discourse at Oswestry, between the th en Bishop of St. Asaph, Dr. William Lloyd,P now Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, and some nonconformist ministers, of which Mr. Henry was one. The story, in short, is this:—That learned bishop, at his first coming to the diocese of St. Asaph, in his zeal for good man, Mr. Henry's great friend, to be presented, and rallied against him particularly, with great keenness in his charge to tlie grand jury. Tor keeping conventicles, as he called it, in the school; •♦•by which means," salth he, " your children get the twang of fanaticism in their noses when they are you!>g. and they will never leave it." Life. Orig. MS. ut npra. p Nat. A. D. 1687; Ob. 30th August, 1717. Mr. Cha1mera*s Biog. Diet. V. 20. p. 347, &c.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY. the established church, set himself with viur to reduce dissenters to it; and, that he might do it with the cords of a man, he resolved, before he took any other methods, to reason the matter with them, and to endeavour their conviction by discourse in which he had a very great felicity, both by his learning and temper. If there were any that declined discoursing with him, he improved that against them very much; urging, as he wTOte afterwards to Mr. Henry,—" That no man can pretend conscience for not coming when he is required, to give an account of his religion, to them that have authority to demand it, by the laws under which he lives, and to hear from their mouths what can be said for the established religion. These are things from which conscience is so far from exempting, that the great rule of conscience requires it, as an indispensable duty, that we should be always ready toffive an account of the hope that is in us; and that we should hear them that are in Moses's chairf &c.; and, therefore, those who refused thi^-, he would consider as men governed, not by conscience, but obstinacy." t-He publicly discoursed with the quakers at lanfyllin, in Montgomeryshire; their champion was Dr. Lloyd, a physician. One of the most considerable nonconformist ministers in his diocese was Mr. James Owen, of Oswestry,' then very young, but well known since by his learned book, which he calls," A Plea for Scripture Ordination;" proving ordination by presbyters, without diocesan bishops, to be valid, (published in the year 1694,) a point of controversy which he was then obliged, in his own defence, to search into. Several discourses the bishop had with him in private; at last, his lordship was pleased to appoint him to give him the meeting in the town-hall at Oswestry, on Tuesday, September 27, 1681, there to give account, " by what right he exercised the ministry, not having episcopal ordination." He directed him also to procure what other ministers he could to assist him, for he would be glad to hear what any of them had to say for themselves. The notice was very short, not above four or &ye days. Some, whose assistance was desired, apprehended it might do more hurt than good, and might be prejudicial to their own liberty, and therefore declined it. It was not agreeable to Mr. Henry's mild and modest temper, to appear in such circumstances; but he was loth to desert his friend, Mr. Owen, and so, with much importunity, he was prevailed with to come to Oswestry, at the time appointed; and there came no other but he and Mr. Jonathan Roberts, of Denbighshire, in the diocese of Bangor, a plain q See Matt, xxili. 3. r Afterwards of Shrewsbury; where he died, April 8,1706, et 5*2. See his Life, ul npra; and Memoirs or Mrs. Savage. Appendix, No. IV.
Aat. Oct. 1641; Ob. 7th June, )7J1. Chalmers's Biog. Diet. v. 12, p- Jif2, Ac. There is a curious statement respecting him in the man, of ^great integrity, and a very good scholar. The bishop came, according to appointment, and brought with him, for his assistant, the famous Mr. Henry Dodwell.* Mr. Henry, who was utterly a stranger to the bishop, pressed hard to have had the discourse in private, before a select number, but it would not be granted. He also desired his lordship that it might not be expected from him, being of another diocese, to concern himself in the discourse, but only a hearer. " Nay, Mr. Henry," said the bishop, " it is not the concern of my diocese alone, but it is the common cause of religion, and, therefore, I expect you should interest yourself in it more than as a hearer." His lordship was pleased to promise, that nothing that should be said by way of argim[)ent, should be any way turned to the prejudice of the disputants, nor advantage taken of it to give them trouble. There were present divers of the clergy and gentry of the country, with the magistrates of the town, and a great number of people, which, if it could have been avoided, was not easy to Mr. Henry, who never loved any thing that made a noise; herein like his Master,^ who did not strive, nor cry. The discourse began about two o'clock in the afternoon, and continued till between seven and eight at night; much was said, pro and con, touching the identity of bishops and presbyters, the bishoping and unbishoping of Timothy and Titus," the validity of presbyterian ordination, &c. It was managed with a great deal of liberty, and not under the strict laws of disputation, which made it hard to give any tolerable account of the particulars of it. The arguments on both sides may better be fetched from the books written on the subject than from such a discourse. The bishop managed his part of the conference with a great deal of gravity, calmness, and evenness of spirit, and therein gave an excellent pattern to all that are in such stations. Mr. Henry's remark upon this business, in his Diary, is this;—That, whereas, many reports went abroad far and near, concerning it, every one passing their judgment upon the result of it, as they stood affected ; for my own part, saith he, upon reflection, I find I have great reason to be ashamed of my manifold infirmities and imperfections ; and yet, do bless God, tliat, seeing I could manage it no better, to do the truth more service, there was not more said and done to its disservice. To God be glory. But there were others, who said, that Mr. Henry was an instrument of glorifying God, and serving the church, in that affair, almost as much as in any thing that ever he did, except the preaching of the gospel. And some, who were adversaries to the cause he
Preface to Dr. S. Clarke's Discourses, vol i. p. xvi. oct. 1730, by Benjamin, Lord Bishop of Salisbury. t •' 1 will always call Jesus my Master." Geo. Herbert. Lives by Walton, v. a. p. 75. ut npra. u See a curious volume bearing this title, 4to. 1636.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
87 pleaded, though they were not convinced by his aifaments, yet, by his great meekness and humility, and that truly Christian spirit, which appeared so endently in the whole management, were brought to have a better opinion of him, and the way in which he walked.
The conference' broke off a little abruptly. The bishop and Mr. Henry being somewhat close at an acgoment, in the recapitulation of what had been disooorsed of, Mr. Jonathan Roberts whispered to Mr. Henry,—" Pray, let my lord have the last word ;'* which a justice of peace upon the bench over-hearing, presenUy replied ;^^' Yon say, * My lord shall have the last word ;' but he shall not; for I will— We thank God, we have the sword of power in our hands; and, by the grace of God, we will keep it; and it shall not rust; and I hope every lawful magistrate will do as I do. And, look to yourselves, gentlemen, by the grace of God, I will root you out of the country." To which a forward man in the crowd, said,—*' Amen ! Throw them down stairs.'' This the bishop heard with silence, but the mayor of the town took order for their safety.
Two days after this discourse, the bishop wrote a very obliging letter to Mr. Henry, to signify to him how very much he was pleased with the good temper and spirit that he found in him at Oswestry, and that he looked upon him as one that intended well, bat laboured under prejudices; and to desire further acquaintance and conversation with him; particularly that he would come to him, straightway, to Wrexham.
[The letter was as follows ;—
I was much pleased with the good temper I found in you at the conference at Oswestry, and sorry to find so little of it in those to whom you had joined yourself; therefore, though I would have bestowed a day or two more with them, in that service, if I bad known what answer I should have received from Mr. Evans, of Wrexham, and Mr. John Trevors, I do not think it worth while to seek for an answer from men that contend, not for truth, but only for victory. But, for you, Sir, in whom I saw better appearances, I would go a good way to have an intercourse with you, could I be sure of finding you at home ; and, since I cannot be sure of that, I send this bearer to desire you would meet me at Wrexham, where I intend, God willing, to be on Friday morning, and to stay all day ; and allow me as much of V Appendix, No. XVII.
V Prom an antbentic copy. X ** Envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableneaB," are the ingredients of tcbisni. See the Enquiry into the nature or schism, foti. Who will not Join hrartily in the response,—From all .these, " Gooa Lord, deliver us!"
See the Ttects of the ever-memorable Hales, of Eton, p. ia4. . d«od. ITS; and Bishop Taylor's Liberty of Prophesying, sect. xxii. I your company as you can. Give me leave to tell yon, though I think you put a wrong interpretation upon 2 Timothy iv. 17. it is probable, that, in thus thinkings I may follow a prejudice of my own; and I know no reason to suspect this in myself, but on account of human infirmity; but, I make bold to say, with St. Austin, * I cannot be a heretic' I trust God will keep me from being obstinate in any error; for I know, and desire to follow, none but him. If you are of the same disposition, there may be a good effect of this meeting. Howsoever, there can be no bad of it, as far as I am able to judge. God direct us in the way of peace and holiness! " Your humble servant, ** In the Lord Jesus Christ, W.St. Asaph."* " September 29, 1680."
About three months after he sent for him again to Chester; in both which inter>iews a great deal of discourse, with much freedom, passed between them in private, in which they seemed to vie in nothing more than candour and obligingness, showing to each other all meekness. I remember the bishop was pleased to show him his plan for the government of his diocese, and tlie method he intended to take in church-censures, which Mr. Henry very well approved of; but pleasantly told his lordship, he hoped he would take care that Juvenal's verso should not be again verified. (Sat. 2.)
Dat veniam corviSf vexat censura columbas.
Which the bishop smiled at, and told him he would take care it should not. His lordship, observing his true catholic charity and moderation, told him he did not look upon him as <rxt(T/iariKO£, a schismatic ;* but only as trapacfwdywyos, a separatist; and, that if he were in his diocese, he did not question but that he should find out some way to make him useful. But all his reasonings could not satisfy Mr. Henry\t conscience of the lawfulness of being re-ordained and conforming. The bishop, for some years after, when he came that way, towards London, either called on Mr. Henry, at his house, or sent for him to him at Whitchurch, and still with all outward expressions of friendship.
[With his characteristic benevolence, Mr. Henry took occasion to avail himself of the favour of the worthy prelate, on behalf of his oppressed brethren, as appears by the following interesting letter: — Works, vt tupra, vol. 8. p. 230. Likewise, Howe's Works, vol 8. p. Ixvi. y The Rev. Richard Stretton used to say, that he kept up his acquaintance with persons of estate and figure as long as he could improve it Tor the doing or good ; and, when it would no longer be made to serve that purpose, he let it dio. ^xwkKwX'icwvvvjxN. fur Mr. Stretton, poiT.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
For the Right Reverend
William, Lord Bishop of St. Asaph. My Lord; The experience which I have had of your very great candour, together with the particular leave you were pleased to give me of applying myself to you, as there might be occasion of this nature, are my encouragement to trouble your lordship with these few lines. I understand there are several protestant dissenters of your diocese, that, being excommunicate, are in danger of being cast into prison, by writs remaining in the sheriff's hands for that purpose, concerning whom, when I was with you at Chester, you were pleased to say,—" It was not for their mere nonconformity, but for withholding their church dues;" and, having made inquiry about it, I do find, that there are but few of them chargeable with that neglect, and, of those few, there is one William David, of Myvod, on whose behalf the minister of the place hath written the enclosed, whereby it will appear, 0iat his default therein was not wilful and usual, but merely accidental ; which, when your lordship sees, I hope it will prevail to obtain from you his discharge. And, for the rest, who suffer for not conforming, I have personal acquaintance with divers of them, both about Wrexham, and in Montgomeryshire; particularly with Mr. Walter Griffiths, and Richard Gardner, and Evan Roberts; and have reason to believe concerning them, that they are religious, sober, peaceable men, though under dissatisfactions in the things imposed; and, being such, I would entreat your lordship, that your lenity may be extended towards them, and the rather, considering, that the casting them into the jail is like to be the ruin of themselves, and of their families, as to this world, which I am confident can be no way pleasing to you in the reflection. Besides, the process against them, if I be not misinformed, is upon presentments made in your predecessor's days long since; and if, in other cases, the action dies with the person,* it were but reasonable it should in this also. Would your lordship please to forbear but for a while this highest act of severity towards them, it may be, upon further conference with them, and knowledge of them, you will find them other persons than they are represented to you to be. I humbly beg your lordship's pardon for my boldness with you herein; and subscribe myself, My Lord, Your servant, much obliged, March 26, 1682. Philip Henry.*] t Actio personalis mon'tur cum persona. —A maxim in law. a Orig. MS. This letter, a little altered, was printed in the Protestant Dissenters* Bflagazine, v. 2. p. 4S6. b Except to Boreatton. Lire. Orig. MS.«/ supra. e Life. Orig. MS. ui supra. See Blather's History of New Eng. land, tM>ok iv. p. 152. d In allusion, no doubt, to the prophetic vision as to the state
The trouble which Mr. Henry was in, about the meeting at Weston, obliged him for a while to keep his sabbaths at home somewhat private; but, in the year 1682, he took a greater liberty, and many flocked to him on Lord's days, through the kind connivance of the neighbouring magistrates; but, in the year 1683, when the meetings were generally suppressed throughout the kingdom, he was again necessitated to contract his sails, and confine his labours more to his own family, and his friends that visited him. He continued his attendance at White-well chapel as usual; and, when he was abridged of his liberty, he often blessed God for his quietness. Once, when one of the curates preached a bitter sermon against dissenters, on a Lord's day morning, some wondered that Mr. Henry would go again in the afternoon, for the second part.—But, saith he, if he do not know his duty, I know mine; and, I bless God, I can find honey in a carcass.
In this time of treading down, and of perplexity, he stirred little abroad,** being forced, as he used to express it,—To throw the plough under the hedge; but he preached constantly at home without disturbance.
[During this period he preached over the Old-Testament types of Christ, real and personal: twelve of each; and the principal passages in the history of Christ's last sufferings; also. Psalm Ixxiii. and part of Psalm Ixxvii. besides many other occasional subjects.*]
He often comforted himself with this ;—^When we cannot do what we would, if we do what we can, God will accept us; when we cannot keep open shop, we must drive a secret trade. And he would say,—There is a mean, if we could hit it, between fool-hardiness and faint-heartedness. While he had some opportunity of being useful at home, he was afraid lest he should prejudice that by venturing abroad. One of his friends, in London, earnestly soliciting him to make a visit thither in this time of restraint in the country, he thus wrote to him;—I should be glad once more to kiss my native soil, though it were but with a kiss of valediction; but my indisposedness to travel, and the small prospect there is of doing good to countervail the pains, are my prevailing arguments against it. I am here, it is true, buried alive, but I am quiet in my grave,** and have no mind to be a walking ghost.* We rejoice, and desire to be thankful, that God hath given us a home, and continued it to us, when so many, better than we, have not where to lay their head, having no certain dwelling-place. (It was at of the Jews, Ezek. xzxvii. 12, 13. See also Milton's Poetical Works, ui supra, v. 5. pp. 352,353. and the notes. Samson Ago-nistes, 100, kc.
When spirits walk, and ghosts hreak up their graves."
Shakspeare. Hen. VI. 2d part, act L sc. 4. " Like a ghost, walk silent among men."
Ben Jonson.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
89 the time of the dispersion of the French protestants.) Why they exiles, and not we? They strangers in a strange land, and not we ? We must not say, We will die m our nests; lest God say, Nay: nor, We will wMJUiply our days as that bird, the phoenix; (referring to Job xxix. 18.) lest God say. This night thy soul skull be required of thee. Oar times, and all oar ways, are at his disposal, absolutely and universally; and it is very well they are so.
At the time of the Duke of Monmouth's descent,' and the insurrection in the west, in the year 1685, Mr. Henry, as many others, (pursuant to a general order of the lord-lieutenant, for securing all suspected persons, and particularly all nonconformist ministers,) was taken up by a warrant from the deputy-lieutenants, and sent under a guard to Chester Castle, where he was about three weeks a close prisoner. He was lodged with some gentlemen and ministers that were fetched thither out of Lancashire, who were all strangers to him, but he bad great comfort in the acquaintance and society of many of them.
[Thence he addressed to Mrs. Henry the following letter ;— July 8, 1685. Dear heart; I continue very well at present,—thanks be to God !—and feel nothing yet of the inconyeniences of a prison. We are better accommodated, as I acquainted you in my last, than we could have expected, though we must pay for it. Just now, six ministers, nonconformists, are brought in hither from Lancashire, more than before; so far are we from enlargement But our times are in God's hand, who hath sent us hither, I am confident, for good, though how, or which way, or wherein, I know not; but He is faithful who hath promised. My chamber-fellows and I differ something in our apprehensions of things past, which will not be helped; but, for the unseen things that are to come, that are eternal, we are all one. Our afternoons, till late, are filled with visitants, who love us, and wish us well, and are kind to us: but we cannot do with them what we would. I have not yet opened the little bottle I brought with me, not wanting it, and being more afraid of what might heat me, in regard we have no drink but strong, (unless very seldom,) which may torn to feverish distempers, wanting exercise. I bave not trodden on the ground since Saturday, which, using myself to in the mornings, I thought the want of might be prejudicial; but hitherto, it is not. I have not tasted butter yet with bread, finee I came from home. This dinner we had beans t See the Hiftory of Taunton, pp. 135—170. t Grig. MS. k *'The mercies of God are inflnite; who doth, not only by his void, but alio by tiis justice, make us fit for his kingdom. Little and bacon, salmon, &c. I am careful what I eat; not fishes and fleshes. Mrs. Wenlock was to see me yesterday, and brought me a bottle of wine. I bestow all of that kind in common with my companions, strangers here. Let me hear from you, how you do, and the children, &c. 'as oft as you can. Love to Matthew. Our guards change every hour, which makes it so very hard to come to us. I would gladly see him; but when, or how, I know not. I think there is little danger of any harm to him here, if there be none at home at his return. Love to Sarah and Eleanor, and to all the rest. Do what you can to get to heaven yourselves, and to help one another thither. Prepare for further sufferings, to which it may be these things are but the preamble; but all is well that ends everlastingly well. Thanks for all your love and faithfulness to me, and patience with me; the Lord will reward it. One of my fellow-prisoners last night received a letter from his wife, subscribed,—'* So I rest, dear husband, in all duty and obedience, your obedient wife.^'—Such is Lancashire kindness; but deeds exceed words.
I am, in short, most entirely, and most affectionately, thine ; p jj g-.
He often spake of this imprisonment, not as a matter of complaint, but of thanksgiving,^ and blessed God he was in nothing uneasy all the while. In a sermon to his family, the day after he came home, he largely and affectionately recounted the mercies of that providence; as for instance;—That his imprisonment was for no cause: it is guilt that makes a prison. That it was his security in a dangerous time. That he had good company in his sufferings, who prayed together, and read the Scriptures together, and discoursed to their mutual edification. That he had health there; not sich; and in prison; that he was visited and prayed for by his friends. That he was very cheerful and easy in his spirit, many a time asleep and quiet, when his adversaries were disturbed and unquiet. That his enlargement was speedy and unsought for, and that it gave occasion to the magistrates who committed him, to give it under their hands, that they had nothing in particular to lay to his charge; and, especially, that it was without a snare, which was the thing he feared more than any thing else.
It was a surprise to some that visited him in his imprisonment, and were big with the expectations of the Duke of Monmouth's success, to hear him say;—I would not have you to flatter yourselves with such hopes, for God will not do his work for us in these nations by that man; but our deliverance and salvation will arise some other way. do our enemies know what good, by these things, they do unto us, and what wreck they bring to their own kingdom, while they set forth the wickedness thereof." Life of BIrs. Katharine Brei-tergh. 4to. 197C, p. 4. BU Lett.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
It must not be forgotten how ready be was, nay, how studious and industrious, to serve and oblige such as bad been any way instruments of trouble to him, as far as it lay in his power, and he had any opportunity to do it; so well had he learned that gat lesson of forgiving and loving enemies: of this it were easy to give instances.
When a gentleman, who had sometimes been an instrument of trouble to him, had occasion to make use of his help to give him some light into a cause he had to be tried, Mr. Henry was very ready to serve him in it; and though he might have declined it, and it was somewhat against his own interest too, yet he appeared a witness for him, which so won upon the gentleman, that he was afterwards more friendly to him. Mentioning in his Diary the death of another gentleman in Shropshire, he notes,—^That he was one that had been his professed enemy; but, saith he, God knows I have often prayed for him.
Some have wondered to see how courteously and friendly he would speak to such as had been any way injurious to him, when he met with them, being as industrious to discover his forgiving of wrongs, as some are to discover their resentments of them: [thus exemplifying the sentiment he pressed on others;—When any have provoked you, you say, you will be even with them ; there is a way not only to be even with them, but above them, and that is, —^to forgive them.']
It was said of Archbishop Cranmer,*' that the way to make him one's friend, was to do him an unkind-ness; and I am sure it might be said of Mr. Henry, that, doing him an unkindness would not make him one's enemy. This minds me of an exemplary passage concerning his worthy friend Mr. Edward Lawrence. Once going, with some of his sons, by the house of a gentleman that had been injurious to him, he gave a charge to his sons to this purpose, —That they should never think or speak amiss of that gentleman for the sake of any thing he had done against him ; but, whenever they went by his house should lift up their hearts in prayer to God for him, and his family. And, who is he that will harm those who are thus followers of him that is good in his goodness ? It is almost the only temporal promise in the New Testament, which is made to the i P. Henry. Com. PI. Book. Orig. MS. 0%itrcome nil with good. That is a noble victory indeed. This is the way not to be even with him that wrongs us, but to be above him. Poole's Annotations on Romans xii. *21. fol. 1688. k Nat. July 2, 1498. He suffered martyrdom at Oxford in the sixty-seventh year of bis age. See bis Life by the Rev. J. Strype, M. A. fol. 1694.
1 See Gen. xvi. 16. in Dean of Norwich. He was a pupil of Dr. Busby's, and died Ist Nov. 1724. 8Bt. 77. Aikin's Gen. Biog. v. 8. p. 340.
B We should keep a pair of scales between our heart and our mouth, to weigh what is suggested. P. Henry. Orig. MS. o Life. Orig. BIS. ni iupra. It is said of Mr. Eliot, that when he heard any ministers complain, that such and such in their flocks meek, Matthew v. 5.—that they shall inherit the earth; the meaning whereof. Dr. Hammond, in his Practical Catechism, takes to be especially this; that, in the ordinary dispensations of God's providence, the most mild and quiet people are most free from disturbance. Those only have every man's hand against them, that have theirs against every man.'
[He often mentioned the memorandum which Dr. Prideaux'" gave in the war-time to a gentleman who had been his pupil, containing three good lessons, in three Hebrew names twice put together, (lessons which he had well learned,) Mishmah, DumahjMassa; Genesis xxv. 14. 1 Chronicles i. 30. which signify, Hear, Keep silence. Bear. The apostle has them together, James i. 19.— Be swift to hear, slow to speah,^ slow to wrath/*
Being asked,—^What are the common vices of the tongue, of which Christians ought more especially to beware ?—he replied;—Vain, flattering, and proud speeches; also, much speaking; an open mouth is a sign of an empty heart; as a chest open is a sign nothing is in it; when money or jewels are within it, it is kept locked. Filthy speaking ; we ought to sprinkle gracious discourses among our other discourses about worldly things; else, not wholesome food. False and profane speaking; beware of making use of scripture expressions without due reverence. Make not sport of the sins of others. Abusive speeches; our tongues must not be scourges, nor razors, nor swords.P
In advising as to the government of the tongue, he pressed commencement with the heart.*!—Resolve, he added, to Take heed; but resolve in the strength of Christ. Be not hasty in speech. Commit the guidance of your tongue to God in prayer. He is the Maker of the tongue.']
We shall next introduce some of Mr. Henry's letters to a person of quality in London. The beginning of his correspondence with that gentleman, (which continued to his death, and was kept up monthly for a great while,) was in the year 1686; and the following letter broke the ice:— Honoured Sir; Hoping you are, by this time, as you intended, returned to London, to your home and habitation were too difficult for them, the strain of his answer still was,— Brother, compass them ! Learn the meaning of those three little words. Bear, Forbear, Forgive. Life, by Cotton Mather, p. 36. duod. 1C8I.
P P. Henry. Orig. MS. q The heart is the scribe that indites matter; the tongue is the pen that writes it down. Ps. xlv. 1. The heart is as be that rides upon a horse; the tongue is as the horse that is ridden. James iii. 3. The heart is the pilot in the ship; the tongue is the ship. James iii. 4. The heart is the fountain; words are as the streams. Matt. xii. 34. The heart is the treasury; words are as stufT brought out of it Matt. xii. 35. The heart is the root; words are the fruit. Prov. xv. 4. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
r P. Henry. Orig. MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
91 there, I make bold, according to my promise, to filiate you in a few lines. In the first place, to be foor remembrancer of the tows of God which are opon yon, upon the account of the many mercies of joar journey, both in your going out, and in your eoming in. Was not every step you took hedged about with special providence ? Had not the angeU charge over you? Did they not pitch their tents where you pitched yours? Did not goodness and mercy fbl Una you,—and should it not then be had in thankful remembrance ? Where mercy goes before, shoald not duty follow after ? If you have Mr. Angler's Life, you will find there, pages 88, 89, a collection out of his Diary, of ten heads of mercies, acknowledged in a journey,* to heighten God's praises, and to quicken his own and others' hearts therein, and they are certainly very affecting. Next, Sir, I am to acquaint you, that I have faithfully disposed of the money you left with me at parting, to eight poor praying widows in this neighbourhood, as yoa appointed. And this, among all the rest of your alms'^deeds, is had in memorial before God;— it is fruit that will abound in your account ;—bread, sent a voyage upon the waters, which you and yours will Jind again after many days; for, he is faithful that kmik promised. The apostle's prayer shall be mine, 2 Corinthians ix. 10.— Now he that minister-etk seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness. A men}
[Who shoots an arrow, and looks not after it;" or knocks at a door, and stays not for an answer?' / will direct my prayer to Thee, says holy David, Pialm V. 3, as an archer his arrow to the mark, and vili look up, to see what becomes of it. And, again. Psalm Ixxxv. 8. / will hearken what God the Lord viilsuy. And so, another prophet, having been at prayer, says, Habakkuk ii. 1. / will get me to my waick'tower. Sometimes our heavenly Father withholds mercies, to quicken prayer; grants them, to awaken our thankful acknowledgments; or, if denied, to excite penitent reflections, searching and
I. DirioM la M# right vajf; want of this cauaeth wander, inf, latxnir, and wnow. Ps. cvii. 7.
" i Preservation of man and beast, of life and health, fh>m f»\h. barm, from enemies, robbers, murderers: some have died in Uie way, as Rachel; others fallen sick by the way, as 1 Sam. XXX. 13. It is a mercy when God supports in travel, to endure heat and cold; for a bone to die, or be lame, in the way, is a great affliction; so. daily supply of new strength is mercy.
X Comfort in the way and weather, when both are good, and company is suitable and comfortable.
" 4. Convenient places for rest, and good refreshment for noon and nigbt
& Seasonable provision of necessary food, and cheerful en-teftainn Knt.
6 Temporary ease from the borthen of domestic affkirs, both care and labow, the mind and body t>oth are eased; others take the tmrtben upon them for a time.
7. Variety of object! to delight the sense, fkir buildings, fruitful flelds. plet Mot meadows. trying,—why, and wherefore: for, it is never so, but there is some cause. Thus the soul and God converse, and correspond. We send to him for some mercy wanted. He replies in his providence, either giving, delaying, or denying. We, in suitable returns, as there is occasion; and, if so, he is never wanting to rejoin, either in kind, or kindness, as he sees best.
With my due and true respects, I take leave, and rest.
Sir, Yours, ever obliged, to honour and serve you, in our dear Lord, Novembers, 1686. Philip Henry.*
For Henry Ashurst, Esq. at his house in St. John-street, London.
December 15, 1686. Sir;
I received yours soon after the date of it; and, according to your order therein, I have distributed other 20s, to the same eight poor praying widows in this neighbourhood, to whom I gave the former. 1 did also oblige them to continue their supplications at the throne of grace on the same particular account, which you at first desired; and, I believe, they have done and do it accordingly; and, you may be sure, it shall not be in vain, because Truth itself hath said it shall not Isaiah xlv. 19. It is true of prayer what is said of winter, that it rots not in the skies." Though the answer be not always in the thing asked, yet it is in something else as good, or better. Abraham's prayer for Ishmael was heard in Isaac. Sometimes God answers us, by strengthening us with strength in our souls. Psalm cxxxviii. 3. He answered his Son so, Luke xxii. 42, 43. If the prayer be for the removal of a present burthen, and it be not removed, yet, if we are enabled with faith and patience to undergo it, the prayer is answered. If, for the bestowing of a desired mercy, as that of Moses, that he might go over into the promised land; if he say, as he did to him. Let it suffice thee ; that is, if he give a contented frame of heart in the want " 8. Change of air; pleasantness and healthfulness there, by refreshing gales in the beat of the day.
" 9. The socieiy of friends whom we visit, and the mutual com. fort that ariseth from their meeting. af\er a time of absence, and from their friendly and hearty converse.
" 10. Opportunity of understanding more fully how God bath answered our prayers for them; opportunity of soul-help, of doing and receiving good by joint prayer, and by conference, by declar. ing experience by stirring up one another to what is good." Life of the Rev. John Angier, pp. 08, 8». duod. 1685. t Transposed fh)m the 3rd edit. pp. 176, 177. tt See Ps. V. 3.
See Gumall's Christian in Ck)mplete Armour, part iii. pp. 603, 604, 4tO. 166^
V From an authentic copy.
X Beware of extremities; and, till the Lord hath truly brought downe tky winter out of the tkjf, know it will ntver rot tkere it must be the mercifu Ucalme of grace which must bring a settled state upon thy soule. Naaman's Disease and Cure, by Dan. Rogers, p. 264. fol. 1642-
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY. of it, the prayer is answered; a* was also that of Panl's, when he prayed that theom in the flesh might pass from him ;— My grace, said he, is tuffi-cient for thee. We have great need of heavenly wisdom, (the Lord give it!) both to discern and to improve answers to prayer; if we have them not in kind, if we have in kindness, we should be no less thankful. I shall be glad to hear, if God see good, that your child recovers; but, if not, if he sanctify the affliction to him and you, that is, further you in sanctification, do your souls good by it, bear you up under it in a quiet, patient, submissive frame, you will say, at last,— li was well. So, also, as to the fitting you with a convenient seat for your family; it were very desirable, if he please, that you should be sped in it; but, if his pleasure be rather to keep you longer in your present circumstances, and then, withal, to give you a heart to improve the same, and to take occasion, from the uncertainties and unset-tlements of this world, to be so much the more diligent in making sure, what will be made sure, a building in heaven, not made with hands, you will be no loser thereby, but a gainer.
My thoughts of justifying faith and sincere repentance, are, 1. That they are choice gifts of God, Ephesians ii. 8. Acts xi. 18. If he give not to us to believe and to repent, we can neither believe nor repent; and therefore, in the want of them, we are to ask them: and, if we ask, he will give. 2. That they are the fruits of electing love. Those that were, from all eternity, given to Christ,—-to all those, and to none but those, it is in time given to believe, and repent. Acts xiii. 48. John vi. 37; xii. 39, 40. If it be said, *' Why doth he then find fault?" I should answer,—^The decree is secret, which is concerning us, but that is revealed which is our duty; and to that we must attend. 3. That they are necessary conditions of pardon. There may perhaps be such a notion framed of a condition, as will by no means be applicable to them, but sano sensu, they are so required, that, if we have them not, our sin remains upon us. Luke xiii. 3—5. John iii. 36. If we have them, it is most certainly done away ; 1 John i. 9. John iii. 16. not for their sake, but for Christ's sahe, 4. That they are inseparable companions; where one is, there is the other also. He that says, '* I believe," and doth not repent, presumes; he that says, '* I repent," and doth not believe, despairs. Faith in Christ doth not justify/rom sin, where there is not godly sorrow/or sin;^ neither can sorrow for sin f The motivts to repentance are,—the shortness or life, and uncertainty or the space for repentance, Rev. ii. 21.—the misery and danger of impenitency, Luke xiii. 3, 5.—the commands of God, ActH xvii. 30.3L—the goodness of Ood, Rom. ii. 4.—his readiness to forgive us upon our repentance, Ps. Ixxxvi. 5—the gospel's gracious invitations of Jesus Christ, Matt. iii. 2.-there is no other way to pardon and reconciliation. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
I She was the fifth daughter of William, Lord Paget, by the Lady Frances, eldest daughter of Henry. Earl of Holland. See a Sermon preached on the Death of the Lady Diana Ashurst, who died Aug obtain pardon of it, where there is not faith in Jesus Christ, because his blood, alone, cleanseth from all sin. If your meaning were, what the nature of them is, and how they may be known, I have not left myself room in this paper to tell you. The Lord, by his grace, work them in us, and increase them more and more!
Please to give my most humble service to your good lady," and to your virtuous daughter. I hope she doth not forget her baptismal covenant The Lord fill you with comfort in each other, and in all your children, but especially, and above all, in himself, who is the Spring-head and Fountain!
With my due respects to your good self, Sir, I rest. Yours, much obliged, to honour and serve you, P. H. For Henry Ashurst, Esq. At his house in St. John-street, London.*']
CHAPTER VIII.
THE LAST NINB TBAR8 OF HIS LIPS IN LIBERTY AND ENLARGE-KENT AT BROAD OAK, FROM THE TEAR 1687.
[The correspondence, already introduced, was early continued in the year 1687, by the following excellent letters:—
Sir;
Our last to each other, as it seems, were of the same date, and met upon the road. You begin with a good subject;—to have my thoughts of faith and | repentance. They are the two hinges, upon which the door of our salvation turns; except we repent, and believe the gospel, we cannot possibly be accepted, and saved. Paul tells the elders of Ephesus, Acts XX. 20. that he had kept back nothing that was pro-fitable unto them; and then adds, verse 2\.—t€ttify-ing repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, —as if those included all that is profitable.* But why repentance towards God? Because he is the party wronged and injured .by sin; and, therefore, to him it is fit the penitent acknowledgment should be made. And, also, because if it be not towards God, it is worth nothing. If we sorrow not with an eye to him; Ezekiei vi. 9.— They shall remember me, and loathe themselves. If our confessions be not before him, as the prodigal's,— 24,1707, by Richard Bfayo, Minister of St Thomas's Hospital in Southwark, 4to. 170R, p. 17. a Orig. MS. a In managing the great business of repentance, set God be. fore thee in his holiness, Christ in his love, and thy sins in their fllthiness. Dwell awhile upon the sight: compare one with another. Compare thy sins with the pure law. P. Henry. Origt MS.
Guilt in the soul is like a mote in the eye; not at ease till wept out. P. Henry. Palmer's Noncon Mem. v. a p. 480.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY.
93
Father, I ktive sinned, frc< (not as Judas who tolil the chief-priests what he had done, but did not tell 6od«) and, if our forsaking of sin, which is a necessary infpredient of saving repentance, be not for God's sake, and from a tme respect to his will and glory,—it is not the sorrow, the confession, the forsaking, that accompanies salvation. We are, notwithstanding it, but as sounding brags and tinkling tymbaU. And, therefore, this is the main matter in repenting. Is what I do in it, done as towards God? Is he in the beginning, in the middle, at the end of i(?— When ye fasted and mourned, saith he, those seventy years, did ye at aIIfast unto me, even to me? Zcchariah vii. 5. That there should be fasting and mourning for seventy years together, and not a jot of it to God, how sad was this! There is repentance in hfll, but it is not repentance towards God, and, therefore, it avails nothing. If the sight and sense we have of sin drive us from God, and we pine away in our iniquities, how should we then live? Bat, if it bring us to God, lay us low, even at his feet, with shame and blushing, then it is right.^ I say, with shame and blushing, as Ezra, Ezra ix. 6. ^O my God, I am ashamed, and blush to lift up my i face to thee, my God. It is that inward blushing of I soul that is the colour of repentance. / abhor my-telf, saith Job, and repent, Self-abhorrency is ; always the companion of true repentance, and it , flows from a sight of God, in his purity and glory. Mine eye seeth thee, therefore I abhor myself There is the shame of a thief, when he is taken, Jeremiah ii. 26. the ground whereof is the shameful punishment he is to undergo; and there is the ingenuous shame of a child towards a father, when he hath offended him, and cannot lift up his face with that boldness as before, which is quite another thing. Such was David's repentance, when he cries for washing, purging, cleansing; like one fallen in the dirt: and, when he prays,— Open thou my lips; Psaim 11. like one tongue-tied through guilt. I believe there is no tme penitent but what can witness this there, where no eye hath seen, but his that sees eveiy where, and that daily, more or less, as there is occasion. And that is another evidence of true lepentance, that it is constant and continual; not like a land-flood, but like the flowings of a spring; sot a single, but an abiding, habit.
With most affectionate respects, and humble service, to your whole good self; beseeching the Lord b The UfredUmti of true repentance are, inward, hearty sorrow, Zecb. lil. 10. hatred of sin, and of self because of sin, Job xlii. & spprefaension of the mercy of Ood in Christ, Matt. iii. 2. par-tieabr confeasioD, with shame and blushing, 1 John i. 7. a special eye to original ain. Pa. li. &. reformation of life, Prov. xxviii. la Heh. n. I. reatitution io case of wrong to man, Luke xi3L a P.
Henry. Orif. MS. « Vhim a copy by the late Rev. S. Lucas, of Shrewsbury, from the Oris. MS. 4 There are vario oa signs of uprightness of heart. See Prov. to remember both you and yours with the favour which he bears unto his people, that you may see the good of his cfufsen, and rejoice in the gladness of his nation; I rest.
Sir, Yours, obliged, to honour and serve you, January 14, 1686-7. P. H.
To Henry Ashurst, Esq.
At his house in St. John-street,
London.^
Sir;
I had yours from Hampton this week, and rejoice to hear of your good health, which God continue I I shall do as you direct in the distribution of 20s. at present to the eight widows, and shall acquaint them with your concern in the young man you mention. God, if it be his will, prevent your fears about it! Uncertainty is written upon all things here below, but there is an unchangeable happiness laid up for us in the other world, and that may be made sure. Your acknowledging God in it, as in all your affairs, I cannot but rejoice in, as an evidence of the uprightness of your heart*' towards him. It is the life and soul of all religion. It is, indeed, to walk with God: and includes as much as any other scripture command in so few words; — In all thy ways acknowledge him. In every thing thou dost, have an eye to him; make his word and will thy rule; his glory thy end; fetch strength from Aim; expect success from him; and, in all events that happen, which are our ways too, whether they be for us, or against us, he is to be acknowledged ; that is, adored; if prosperous, with thankfulness; if otherwise, with submission; as Job;— The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath tahen, and blessed be the name of the Lord I This is to set the Lord always before us: to have our eyes ever towards him. Where this is not, we are, so far, without God in the world.
As to what you desire concerning your son, I am heartily willing to my poor power, to serve you in his education here, for a while, but I am afraid, by reason of your undeserved over-valuing thoughts of me, (wherein you would abate if you knew me better,) lest you promise yourself that, from it, which will not be. Should the liberty talked of prove an open door, concerning which we are yet ziv. 3. an upright man fears the Lord. See Prov. xvi. 17. he depans from evil. See Ps. xix 13. he is kept back fh>m presumptuous sins. See Ps. xviii. 23. he is kept from his own iniquity, and performs all duties, Luke i. 6, 7. See Prov. x 9. he walketh surely. See Matt xix. 21. be is willing to part with any thing for Christ. He is as good in secret as before others; he keeps a single eye at God's glory, 2 Cor. i. 12. To get an upright heart, walk as always In God's sight, I Cbron. xxviii. 9. Gen. xvii. I. It will be a comfort when you lie upon your death-bed. Isa. xxxviii. 3. P. Henry. Orig. MS.
THE LIFE OF MR. PHILIP HENRY. in the dark here, and, I perceiVe, so are they also that are nearer you, I think, if others enter, (salv. come) I shall be loth to stay behind ; it will be a hindcrance to that attendance to hb teaching, which should be, especially if he be not yet past the school measures. And, another thing is, that he will be alone, which will make the wheels go heavy. I have refused several of late, and at present do not know of any undisposed of, that will be meet for him. It were desirable it should be one who is rather a step before than behind him. These are the things, at present, that offer themselves to my thoughts concerning it, and, from mine, they come to you, if my son have not already hinted them to you. I suppose it will not be long ere he will be looking homewards; and, if so, with his help, it will be the better done. Please to weigh it yet further with yourself, and the Lord direct and determine your will by his will, and that shall be my will in the matter.
Sir, I most heartily thank both you and your good lady, (to whom I give my humble service,) for your very great kindness and respect to my son;* he intimates the deep sense he hath of it, and I join with him in the thankful acknowledgment.