It was a stock of Scripture knowledge that he set up with, and with that he traded to good advantage. Though he was so great a master in the eloquence of Cicero, yet he preferred far before it that of Apollos, who was an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures. Acts, xviii. 24.

He bid very fair at that time for University-preferment, such was the reputation he had got at the late act, and such his interest in Dr. Owen; but the salvation of souls was that which his heart was upon, to which he postponed all his other interests.

In September, 1653, he came down to Emeral,* from whence a messenger was sent on purpose to Oxford to conduct him thither. Long after, when it had pleased God to settle him in that country, and to build him up into a family, he would often reflect upon his coming into it first; what a stranger he then was, and how far it was from his thoughts ever to have made his home in those parts; and, passing over the brook that parts between Flintshire and Shropshire, would sometimes very affectionately use that word of Jacob's,-With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.

At Emeral he prayed in the family, was tutor to the young gentlemen, and preached once a day at Worthenbury, other help being procured for the other part of the day, according to his request, out of a fear, being so young, to take the whole work upon him. But it soon happened, that, one Lord's day, the supply that was expected failed; and so he was necessitated, rather than there should be a vacancy, to preach twice, in which he found the promise so well fulfilled, As thy day is, so shall thy strength be; and, To him that hath (i. e. that hath, and useth what he hath) shall be given, and he shall have abundance; that, to the great satisfaction of his friends there, from thenceforward he waved looking out for other help than what came from above, and would sometimes speak of this as an instance, that we do not know what we can do, till we have tried.

Here he applied himself to a plain† and practical way of

On leaving Broughton I took the road towards Bangor. On the right lies Emral Hall, the seat of the Pulestons; a family settled here in the time of Edward I. but which took its name from Pulesdon, a township in Shropshire. Pennant's Tours in Wales, v. i. p. 297. See Leland, ut supra, v. 5, pp. 32, 33.

+ Let your preaching be plain. Painted glass is most curious; plain glass is most perspicuous. Be a good crucifix to your people. Preach a crucified Saviour in a crucified style. Paul taught so plainly, that the Corinthians thought him a dunce. Let your matter be substantial; wholesome food; God and Christ, and the gospel, faith, repentance, regeneration. Aim purely at God's glory and the salvation of souls. Study, as if there were no Christ; preach, as if there had been no study. Preach plainly, yet with novelty; preach powerfully, as Micah;—as Paul, in intension of spirit, not extension of voice. To this end get your sermon into your own souls. It is best, from the heart, to the heart. Preach prudentially,—as stewards, to give each their portion. Get your sermons memoriter. How can you expect your people should remember, and repeat, if you read? Yet use caution. Our memories are not of brass,-they are cracked, in all, by the fall. Beware of giving occasion to say,-I may stay at home in the afternoon; I shall hear only the same song. Mr. Porter at an Ordination. From a MS in the hand-writing of P. Henry.

preaching, as one truly concerned for the souls of those he spoke to. He would say sometimes, We study how to speak that you may understand us; and, I never think I can speak plain enough when I am speaking about souls and their salvation. I have heard him say, he thought it did him good, that for the first half year of his being at Worthenbury, he had few or no books with him, which engaged him in studying sermons to a closer search of the Scripture, and his own heart. What success his labours had in that parish, which, before he came to it, I have been told, was accounted one of the most loose and profane places in all the country, may be gathered from a letter of the Lady Puleston's to him, at the end of the first half year after his coming to Emeral, when he was uncertain of his continuance there, and inclinable to return to settle at Christ-church. Take the letter at large.

Dear Mr. Henry;

The indisposition that my sadness hath bred, and the stay of Mrs. V. here yesterday, hindered my answering your last expressions. As to ordering the conversation, and persevering to the practice of those good intents, taken up while one is in pursuit of a mercy, you and I will confer, as God gives opportunity, who also must give the will and the deed, by his Spirit, and by the rule of his word. As to begging that one thing for you, God forbid, as Samuel said, that I should cease to pray, &c. This I am sure, that having wanted hitherto a good minister of the word among us, I have oft by prayer and some tears, above five years besought God for such a one as yourself; which, having obtained, I cannot yet despair, seeing he hath given us the good means, but he may also give us the good end. And this I find, that your audience is increased three for one in the parish, though in winter more than formerly in summer; and five for one out of other places. And I have neither heard of their being in the ale-house on our Lord's day, nor ballplaying that day, which, before you came was frequent, except that day that young Ch. preached. I think I can name four or five in the parish, that of formal christians are becoming or become real. But you know all are not wrought on at first, by the word. Some come in no misfortune like other men, and this is the cause they be so holden with pride, &c. Hypocrites also have converted conversion itself. Yet God may have reserved those that have not bowed the knee to Baal, &c. and may call them at the latter part of the day, though not in this half year. It is a good sign, most are loath to part with you; and you have done more good in this half year, than I have discerned these eighteen years. But, however, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, you have delivered your own soul. I have prayed, and do pray, seeing God hath sent you, that you may be for his glory, and not for our condemnation.

It is easy to imagine what an encouragement this was to him,

thus at his first setting out to see of the travail of his soul, and what an inducement it was to him not to leave those among whom God had thus owned him. However, that spring he returned to Oxford. The Lady Puleston soon after came to him thither, with her five sons, of whom she placed the two eldest under his charge in the college. In the following vacation he went to London to visit his relations there; and there, in October he received a letter from Judge Puleston, with a very solemn and affectionate request, subscribed by the parishioners of Worthenbury, earnestly desiring his settlement among them, as their minister, which he was persuaded to comply with, having fixed to himself that good rule,-In the turns of his life, to follow Providence, and not to force it. So, in the winter following he came down again, and settled with them. He continued in his student's place in Christ-church for two or three years, attending the service of it once a year; but disposing of most of the profit of it for the use of poor scholars there.

The tithe of Worthenbury belonged to [the] Emeral family, paying some rent to the Rector of Bangor. This tithe Judge Puleston was willing to give, clear of that charge, to the minister of Worthenbury for ever. But such was the peculiar and extraordinary kindness he had for Mr. Henry, upon the experience of his merits, that he chose rather by deed of indenture, bearing date October 6, 1655, between himself and Mr. Henry,-"In consideration of his being pleased to undertake the cure of souls, and to preach and teach, and perform other duties of divine service in the parish church of Worthenbury, (so the deed runs,) to give, grant, and confirm for himself and his heirs, unto the said Philip Henry, the yearly rent of one hundred pounds, charged upon all his messuages, lands, and tenements in the several counties of Flint, Denbigh, and Chester, to be paid quarterly, until such times as the said Philip Henry shall be promoted or preferred to some other spiritual or ecclesiastical living or preferment, with power of distress in case of non-payment." A hundred a year was more than Worthenbury tithes were worth at that time; and the manner of the gift freed the maintenance from much of that loss and incumbrance which commonly attends the gathering of tithe.

[About this period, judging from the hand-writing of the following letter, addressed to a friend at Oxford, (no doubt Dr. Owen, who was then Dean of Christ-church, and Vice-Chancellor,*) he received a summons to that city, which led him to add the postscript. But as the letter furnishes an illustration of Mr. Henry's character as a young minister, the whole may be here fitly introduced.

Most honoured Sir;

Being importuned to improve my interest for the supply of a vacant curacy in these parts, I make bold to acquaint you with

* Le Neve, pp. 231, 466, fol. 1716.

the state of it, that, if you know of any, either in your own college or elsewhere, that is willing to accept of it, you would please to be instrumental in sending him hither.

The place is called Holt, it is in Denbighshire; but I think a man may throw a stone out of it into Cheshire; it is distant from Wrexham about three miles, and from Cheshire five; the situation of it for convenience is beyond exception; there are but few such hereabouts, only the salary, I fear, may appear somewhat too small to some so far for. It is as yet, upon certainty, but £45 per annum, but it is probable may be made, ere long, £65, paid in money, and no deductions out of it for taxes; for the place of his abode, if he be a single man, the Major of the town, a very godly person, hath promised it in his own house, till such time care be taken to provide for him otherwise. For his qualifications, Sir, he must, in a judgment of charity, be one that fears God, in regard he comes, not to a place that never heard of Christ, (as many such there be in Wales,) but to a knot of eminent, discerning Christians, scarce the like anywhere hereabouts, among whom there are divers able, indeed, to be themselves teachers of others, so that if he himself be one that hath no savour of the things of God, he will be no way acceptable or useful there. He must, moreover, be either fitted already for the administration of the ordinances, or in a capacity of being suddenly fitted; if he make haste hither, he may have an opportunity shortly of being ordained here in Shropshire.

Sir, if God, the Lord of the harvest, shall make use of you in his providence, as an instrument of thrusting forth a faithful labourer into this corner of his vineyard, I no way doubt but you will be often mentioned by some of them with rejoicing at the throne of grace, and that you, yourself, when you shall have reaped the fruit of their prayers, will bless God for putting such a prize into your hands.

Sir, craving your pardon for my boldness in troubling you, I leave the matter with your care, and yourself, and all your relations and concernments, with our ever good God.

Your Servant very much obliged,

P. H.

Sir, since my purpose of writing to you about the business above mentioned, I have received information from Christ-church of a summons to appear personally there, before Michaelmas Term: whereupon my request to you is, that by a line or two you would please to acquaint me, whether I may not obtain to be dispensed with. 1. In regard I was so lately there. 2. In regard of the great distance I am now at from thence; above four score miles. 3. Of the unusual unseasonableness of the ways and weather: and 4. Which is most of all, my very great indisposedness in point of health. If I may be excused, I would intreat you, Sir, to endeavour it for me; if not, that you would please to send me word,—1.

Whether it will not serve if I come sooner and 2. How long it will be required that I make my stay there. Sir, I have more reason to beg your pardon for this latter trouble than the former.*]

He still continued for some years in the Emeral family, where he laid out himself very much for the spiritual good of the family, even of the meanest of the servants, by catechising,† repeating the sermons, and personal instruction, and he had very much comfort in the countenance and conversation of the judge and his lady. Yet he complains sometimes in his diary of the snares and temptations that he found in his way there, especially because some of the branches of the family, who did not patrizare, were uneasy at his being there, which made him willing to remove to a house of his own; which, when Judge Puleston perceived, in the year 1657, out of his abundant and continued kindness to him, he did, at his own proper cost and charges, build him a very handsome house in Worthenbury, and settled it upon him by a lease, bearing date March 6, 1657, for threescore years, if he should so long continue minister at Worthenbury, and not accept of better preferment.

He hath noted in his diary, that the very day that the workmen began the building of that house, Mr. Mainwaring, of Malpas, preached the lecture at Bangor, from Psalm cxxvii. 1. Except the Lord build the house, § they labour in vain that build it. -There never was truth, saith he, more seasonable to any than this was to me. It was a word upon the wheels. He hath recorded it as his great care, that his affections might be kept loose from it, and that it might not encroach upon God's interest in his heart. When it was finished, he thus writes:-I do from my heart bless God, that no hurt or harm befel any of the workmen in the building of it.

Thus was his maintenance settled at Worthenbury. In the year 1659, he was, by a writing of Judge Puleston's, collated,

P. Henry. Orig. MS.

Use catechising. Heretofore, catechising justled out preaching; now, preaching justles out catechising. Let the ship be ballasted with fundamental truths. Hearers will then not be so easily whirled about with every wind. Luther was called,-discipulus catechismi. Mr. Porter, 1659. From a MS. in P. Henry's handwriting.

See Dr. Townson's Works, v. 1, p. xix. ut supra, and Ormerod's Hist. of Cheshire, v. ii. p. 328, &c.

Mr. Henry has the following notes on this passage :—

The house; that is, the family. Build; that is, constitute, maintain, preserve, augment. If we would have God to build our houses, we must be careful to build God's house by caring for his worship, ordinances, interests. Hag. i. 9. ii. 18. 2 Sam. vii. -; to aim at his glory in our buildings, not at self, as Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. iv. 30;-to build in faith, relying upon the promises, Heb. xi. 9, 10;-in the fear of God, Exod. i. 21; in righteousness and honesty, Prov. x. 25; Hab. ii. 12.We must fetch in God by prayer, and keep him there by family duties, Josh. xxiv. 15; Ps. ci. Orig. MS.

"A word, fitly spoken, is like apples of gold in pictures of silver;" Prov. xxv. 11; or, as the Hebrew hath it,-"A word spoken upon his wheels;" that is, rightly ordered, placed, and circumstanced. Brooks's Arke for all God's Noahs, Ep. Ded, p. 1, duod. 1662. See, also, Jer. xviii. 3.