word: and, therefore, we have had, as we think we ought, in our present agreement, a special eye to the Directory," &c. These agreements of their's were the more likely to be for good, for that here, as in Worcestershire, when they were in agitation, the ministers set apart a day of fasting and prayer among themselves to bewail ministerial neglects, and to seek to God for direction and success in their ministerial work. They met sometimes for this purpose at Mr. Henry's house at Worthenbury. One passage may not improperly be inserted here, that once at a meeting of the ministers, being desired to subscribe a certificate concerning one whom he had not sufficient acquaintance with; he refused, giving this reason, that he preferred the peace of his conscience before the friendship of all the men in the world.* Sept. 29, 1658, the Lady Puleston died.-She was, saith he, the best friend I had on earth, but my Friend in Heaven is still where he was, and he will never leave me nor forsake me. He preached her funeral sermon from Isaiah, iii. last verse; Cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils. He hath noted this expression of her's not long before she died: "My soul leans to Jesus Christ; lean to me, sweet Saviour." About this time he writes,-A dark cloud is over my concernments in this family, but my desire is, that, whatever becomes of me and my interest, the interest of Christ may still be kept on foot in this place. Amen, so be it. But he adds soon after, that saying of Athanasius, which he was used often to quote and take comfort from; Nubecula est et cito pertransibit. It is a little cloud, and will soon blow over. About a year after, Sept. 5, 1659, Judge Puleston died, and all Mr. Henry's interest in Emeral family was buried in his grave. He preached the Judge's funeral sermon, from Nehemiah, xiii. 14; Wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for the offices thereof. The design of which sermon was not to applaud his deceased friend. I find not a word in the sermon to that purpose. But he took occasion from the instance of so great a benefactor to the ministry as the Judge was, to shew that deeds done for the house of God, and the offices thereof, are good deeds: and to press people, according as their ability and opportunity was, to do such deeds. [Thus he enlarged,-They are acts of piety. Such acts as have immediate relation to God. That which is given to the poor members of Jesus Christ to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, is charity. -That which is given to, or done for the house of our God, is piety. They are acts of justice. Alms in Hebrew are called justice. One of the Doctors, who visited Huss, said to him,-"If the Council (of Constance, A. D. 1414,) should tell you, that you have but one eye, though you have really two, you would be obliged to agree with the Council." "While God keeps me in my senses," replied Huss, "I would not say such a thing against my conscience, on the intreaty or command of the whole world." Milner's Church Hist. v. 4. p. 244. When bestowed upon the house of God, they are as a rent-penny for what we enjoy. They have a tendency to the good of souls. The minister's success will further the patron's account. To be an instrument to bring and keep the means of grace among a people is indeed a good deed. They tend very much to the credit of religion. It is often cast in our teeth by the Papists, What good deeds are done among you for the house of the Lord since the Reformation? Pater noster built churches, and our Father pulls them down; whereas, probably, most of their good deeds were mulets improved for penance. Wipe them not out. This implies that God notes them as in a table-book as every sin, so every good deed. Allusion to Esther, vi. 1. And it is in order to a requital. Malachi, i. 10. Indeed the work itself is its own wages. Church-work is honourable work it is an honour to be permitted to do any good deed for the house of God. Let us be ashamed of our barrenness in good deeds for the house of our God. Especially those that have wherewithal; estates, opportunities. How much of our rent are we behind with God! We can be liberal and bountiful upon other occasions, in house-keeping, but what is done for the Lord's house? Are we not as an almanack, on one side full of red and black letters and figures, on the other side blank? God takes it very unkindly. Haggai, i. 4. Let the subject stir us up to do what good we can for the house of our God: where much is given, much will be required. It is not building of churches that I am persuading you to, but to do something to promote religion. Sit down and consider,-Can I do nothing for the house of my God? And what you do, do quickly. Eccles. ix. 10. Do self-denyingly. 1 Chron. xxix. 14. Do believingly. Heb. xi. 6. Sprinkle it with faith.* Another] passage I find in that sermon which ought to be recorded; that it had been for several years the practice of a worthy gentleman in the neighbouring county, in renewing his leases, instead of making it a condition that his tenants should keep a hawk or a dog for him, to oblige them that they should keep a Bible in their houses for themselves, and should bring up their children to learn to read, and to be catechized. This, saith he, would be no charge to you, and it might oblige them to that which otherwise they would neglect. Some wished, saith he, in his diary, that I had chosen some other subject for that sermon, but I approved myself to God, and if I please men, I am not the servant of Christ.† What personal affronts he received from some of the branches of that family at that time, need not be mentioned, but with what exemplary patience he bore them, ought not to be forgotten. P. Henry. Orig. MS. + See 2 Tim. ii. 15. Gal. i. 10. In March, 1658-9, he was very much solicited to leave Worthenbury, and to accept of the Vicarage of Wrexham,* which was a place that he had both a great interest in, and a great kindness for, but he could not see his call clear from Worthenbury, so he declined it. The same year he had an offer made him of a considerable living near London; but he was not of them that are given to change, nor did he consult with flesh and blood, nor seek great things to himself.+ That year he had some disturbance from the Quakers, who were set on by some others, who wished ill to his ministry; they challenged him to dispute with them; and that which he was to prove against them, was, that the God he worshipped was not an idol; that John Baddely (a blacksmith in Malpas, and the ringleader of the Quakers in that country) was not infallible, nor without sin; that baptism with water and the Lord's Supper are gospelordinances; that the Scriptures are the word of God, and that Jesus Christ will come to judge the world at the last day. But he never had any publick disputes with them, nor so much disturbance from them in publick worship, as some other ministers had elsewhere about that time. He had some apprehensions at that time, that God would make the Quakers a scourge to this nation; but had comfort in this assurance, that God would in due time vindicate his own honour, and the honour of his ordinances, and those of them who will not repent to give him glory, will be cast into the fire. One passage I cannot omit, because it discovers what kind of spirit the Quakers were of. A debauched gentleman being in his revels at Malpas, drinking and swearing, was, after a sort, reproved for it by Baddely the Quaker, who was in his company. "Why," saith the gentleman, "I'll ask thee one question, Whether is it better for me to follow dirinking and swearing, or to go and hear Henry?" He answered, “Of the two, rather follow thy drinking and swearing." The Cheshire Rising this year, in opposition to the irregular powers that then were uppermost, under Sir George Booth, afterwards Lord Delamere, and that of North Wales under Sir Thomas Middleton, § could not but affect Worthenbury, and the country thereabouts. Mr. Henry's prayer for them in his Diary, the day of their first appearing is,-Lord, own them, if they truly own thee! He notes, that Lambert's || forces which came down to suppress In the gift of the Bishop of St. Asaph. Ecton's Thesaur. by Dr. Willis, p. 491. That See was then vacant. Le Neve, p. 22. + See Prov. xxiv. 21. Gal. i. 16. Jer. xlv. 5. See Reliq. Baxter. Lib. 1, Part I. p. 77, ut supra, and Mather's Hist. of New England, Book VII. p. 21, &c. fol. 1702. It would be manifestly unjust to class with their forefathers the societies now so designated. See the Declaration of Sir Thomas Middleton, Serjeant-Major-General and Vice-Admiral for the Six Counties of North Wales, 1645, 4to. John Lambert, one of the Parliamentarian Generals. See Aikin's General Biography, v. 6, p. 100. There are several curious letters concerning him in Lord Clarendon's State Papers, v. 3, pp. 329, &c. + them, did in that neighbourhood espouse the Quakers' cause, and offer injury to some ministers; and, therefore, saith he, unless God intend the ruin of the nation by them, they cannot prosper. Nor did they long, though in that expedition they had success. In their return, some of Lambert's soldiers were at Worthenbury Church, hearing Mr. Henry upon a Lord's day; and one of them sat with his hat on, while they were singing psalms, for which he publickly admonished him: and there being many Anabaptists among them, he hath recorded it as a good providence, that those questions in the catechism, which are concerning baptism, came in course to be expounded that day. The first rising of the Cheshire forces was August 1,1659, and the 19th following they were worsted and scattered by Lambert's forces, near Northwich, a strange spirit of fear being upon them, which quite took off their chariot-wheels.* The country called it not the Cheshire Rising, but the Cheshire Race. Some blamed him that he did not give God thanks publickly for the defeat of Sir George Booth; to whom he answered with his usual mildness, that his apprehensions concerning that affair were not the same with their's. We are now, saith he, much in the dark, never more. He preached the lecture at Chester soon after, just at the time when Mr. Cook, an eminent minister in Chester, and several others, were carried prisoners to London, for their agency in the late attempt; and the city was threatened to have their charter taken away, &c. The text in course that day, (for they preached over the latter part of that epistle, if not the whole, at that lecture,) happened to be Hebrews, xiii. 14; We have here no continuing city, which he thought a word upon the wheels at that time. He notes in his Diary, that when, after that, the army ruled, disturbed the Parliament, and carried all before them with a high hand, there were great grounds to fear sad times approaching; and his prayer is,-Lord, fit thy people for the fiery trial. He was a hearty well-wisher + to the return of the King, the Spring following, April, 1660, and was much affected with the mercy of it. While others rejoice carnally, saith he, Lord, help thy people to rejoice spiritually, in our publick national mercies. It was upon that occasion that Mr. Baxter preached his sermon of right rejoicing,‡ on Luke, x. 20. But he and others soon saw cause to rejoice with trembling, and to sing both of mercy and judgment; for about that time he hath this melancholy remark,Religion loses ground exceedingly, and profaneness gets it. Help, Lord! However, he was very industrious to quiet the minds of some who were uneasy at that great revolution; and that scripture * See Exod. xiv. 25. "The King himself told the Ministers of London, on the day of his happy return, when the Rev. Mr. A. Jackson presented him with a Bible in their behalf, as he passed through St. Paul's Church-yard, to this effect;-That he must attribute his restauration, under God, to their prayers and endeavours." The Conformist's Fourth Plea for the Nonconformists. 4to, 1683, p. 69. # Quarto, 1660. yielded him much satisfaction, John, iii. 35, The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hands. If Christ be not only the Head of the church, but Head over all things to the church, we may be assured, that all things shall be made to work together for good to it.* The text also which the Lord put into his heart to preach upon on the day of publick thanksgiving for the King's restoration, was very comfortable to him, Proverbs, xxi. 1, The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord. His sense of that great mercy of God to the nation, in the unbloody, peaceable, and legal settlement of King Charles II. upon the throne, was the same with that of multitudes besides, both ministers and others, that were of the quiet in the land, who yet, not long after, suffered very hard things under him. Soon after the return of the King, he notes how industrious some were to remove him from Worthenbury, on which he writes this as the breathing of his soul towards God;-Lord, if it please thee, fasten me here as a nail in a sure place; if otherwise, I will take nothing ill which thou dost with me. And when pressed by his friends more earnestly than before, to accept of some other place,-Lord, saith he, mine eye is up unto thee; I am wholly at thy disposal; make my way plain before my face, because of mine enemies; my resolution is, to deny myself if thou callest me. Here, or any where, it is no great matter where, I am. Many years after the King's return, he dated a letter, May 20. Τη ημέρα αὐτῇ τῇ γλύκυπικρα. There are two things further which I think it may be of use to give some account of in the close of this chapter. 1. Of the course of his ministry at Worthenbury; and, 2. of the state of his soul, and the communion he had with God in those years. As to the subjects he preached upon, he did not use to dwell long upon a text.-Better one sermon upon many texts, viz. many scriptures opened and applied, than many sermons upon one text. To that purpose he would sometimes speak. ‡ He used to preach in a fixed method, and linked his subjects in a sort of chain. § He adapted his method and style to the capacity of his hearers, fetching his similitudes for illustration from those things which were familiar to them. He did not shoot the arrow of the word over their heads in high notions, or the flourishes of affected rhetorick, nor under their feet, by blunt and homely expressions, as many do|| under pretence of plainness, but to their See Eph. v. 23. Col. i. 18. Ephes. i. 22. Rom, viii. 28. See the Plan of the Sermon in the Evan. Mag. v. xxvii. p. 399. The Synod of St. Foy, in France, A. D. 1578, witnesseth against Ministers dwelling long upon a text, and would have them expound and treat of as many in their ministry as they can, fleeing all ostentation and long digressions. Quick's Synodic. v. 1, p. 117. Life of P. Henry by Matthew Henry. Orig. MS. Appendix, No. VIII. A like testimony is borne of another contemporary.-" He did not soar aloft in high expressions, shooting over his hearers, but did condescend to the capacities of the meanest, which is an excellence in any." Works of Mr. John Murcot, 4to, 1657. Ep. Ded. by Dr. Samuel Winter, p. 3. See also Clark's Lives annexed to the Martyrologie, p. 176, ut supra. |