PREFACE.

"THE lips of the righteous," said Solomon, "feed many;" and in our times especially is the assertion verified by the published relics of persons so denominated. In the publications referred to, as in ample storehouses, hath been laid up for the church most invigorating food; and the press, like the blessing upon the widow's stock, continues to multiply and perpetuate the treasure.

Few individuals have been more distinguished for their endeavours to advance the divine honour, by such means, than Matthew Henry. His name, because of his productions as an author, is deservedly great in Israel; and in the gates thereof do his works praise him. His course on earth terminated long ago, but not until, in a far more exalted sense than the racers in the Grecian games, he had delivered a torch to survivors-a torch, which guides to heaven; and which not only has remained unextinguished, but still flames with increased and cheering brilliance.

The favourable reception given to the late edition of our author's Scripture Commentary, in three octavo volumes,* has induced the enterprising and zealous proprietor of that unique impression, to send forth, in a size exactly uniform, the ensuing collection of the same inestimable man's Miscellaneous Compositions.

Various editions, some smaller, and some more extended, bearing a similar title, have heretofore appeared. But if the folio of 1726, and the quarto of 1811, be excepted, not one has made the least pretension to completeness. Neither of those editions, though the most perfect of any, is fairly entitled to the distinction. The quarto contained the Sermon at the opening of the Meeting-house in Chester, which was omitted in the folio; and the folio preserved the collection of Family Hymns, while the quarto retained only the Prefatory Essay to that collection. But neither embraced his Treatise on Baptism, nor yet his Memoirs of Mrs. Radford, Mrs. Hulton, or Dr. Tylston.

All Mr. Henry's publications, (except only the tract on the schism bill,† which cannot be discovered,) including the Prefaces he wrote to the Life of Thomas Beard,‡ and Mr. Murrey's book on Closet Devotion, § will be found in the present undertaking. Many discourses from original, and hitherto unpublished, manuscripts, are added; as are also the admirable sermons, delivered on occasion of his death, by the Rev. Dr. Daniel Wiliams, the Rev. William Tong, and the Rev. John Reynolds of Shrewsbury. They are all, as I am informed, accurately corrected, as well as beautifully printed and elegance is united with cheapness.

Originally printed in 6 folios. Mr. Thoresby of Leeds, of antiquarian celebrity, and Mr. Henry's friend, (see the Life prefixed to the Exposition, in oct. ut supra, vol i. p. 35.) possessed "the memorable pen, wherewith the far greatest part of the volumes, in folio, was writ, the gift of the reverend author, 1712." See Thoresby's Ducatus Leodensis, Dr. Whitaker's edition, p. 70. in the Catalogue of Natural and Artificial Rarities, fol. 1816.

+ See the Life, ut supra, p. 108.

The Holy Seed, or the Life of Mr. Tho. Beard, by Jos. Porter, duod. 1711.

Closet Devotions, by Robert Murrey, duod. 1713.

Had Mr. Henry's life been lengthened, it was his intention to have published the manuscript sermons now introduced, and many others. The series, alas! in present circumstances broken, would then have been perfect.

As selections from his usual pulpit preparations, and amounting to scarcely more, in any instance, than sermon skeletons, the manuscripts now published will, if compared with other parts of the volume, suffer from the common disadvantages of incompleteness. But while this circumstance has been felt as a reason against their introduction, the consideration of the welcome they are sure to meet with, and the prospect, therefore, of their usefulness, has outweighed that and several other objections. One of those objections-brevity-will be to some persons, no doubt, a recommendation.

It will be observed, by careful readers, how well the manuscripts referred to accord with Mr. Henry's more finished productions, which it will now be seen, more clearly than ever, were only a faithful representation of their author. What he appeared to the world to be as a preacher, he really was among his stated auditors, both at Chester and Hackney.

To the whole is appended a set of discourses by the venerable Philip Henry, his father, on what Christ is made to believers in forty real benefits. The subjects of this part of the volume are now first published from the hand-writing of the holy man who penned them ; and being thus associated with his Life, † are not, it is thought, unsuitably preserved in the present volume. They have been introduced, indeed, because of their intrinsic excellence; for the greater honour of the writer; and for the sake of a wider circulation than would probably have been secured if published in a detached or separate form.

Independently of their interesting subjects, their author's special approbation of these sermons may be noticed. Philip Henry selected them from his accumulated collection of papers as a legacy to his excellent daughter Mrs. Savage; ‡ a fact perpetuated by herself in the commencement of the original manuscript, which forms a thick duodecimo volume.

"What Christ is made of God to true believers in forty real benefits, preached at his meeting-house, at Broad Oak, in Flintshire, by my honoured father, Mr. Henry, thus written with his own dear hand, and left to me, S. S. by his last will, to the end I may learn Christ, and live Christ, and be eternally happy with him. Amen." §

The treasure thus distinguished, is possessed by my respected friend, Mrs. Bunnell, Lower Terrace, Islington, a descendant of Philip Henry; and at my request she kindly communicated it for publication.

Notwithstanding similar regrets attach to the contents of the Appendix, as to the rest of the fragments now, for the first time, made public, the same arguments for their admission preponderated in the one case as in the other; and they fully demonstrate, though unfinished, our author's accuracy, when he pronounced his father's preaching to be "very substantial, and elaborate, and greatly to edification." ||

All the sermons included in the Appendix are, as their title imports, concerning Christ— in various of those endearing relations which he bears towards his church. It is their individual and combined object to exalt him; to maintain his true and proper divinity; to illustrate the necessity and infinite nature of his atonement; and thus to fix every eye upon his cross. They exhibit likewise, in lively and familiar terms, those sources of satisfaction to believers, which alone can minister joy as they travel to their everlasting rest.

It is the exclusive design of one discourse, the eighth of the series, to prove that Jesus Christ is the Lord our Righteousness; and that it is the duty of believers to call him so. No

See the Life, ut supra, p. 111.

+ See p. 9.

Mrs. Savage. The original MS.

See her Life, duod. 1828. 4th. ed. See post, p. 106.