"Yea, follow peace and holiness; and then let them say what they will."-More he would have said to bear his dying testimony to the way in which he had walked, but nature was spent, and he had not strength to express it.

His understanding and speech continued almost to the last breath; and he was still, in his dying agonies, calling upon GoD, and committing himself to him. One of the last words he said, when he found himself just ready to depart, was, "O death where is thy;" with that his speech faultered, and within a few minutes (after about sixteen hours' illness) he quietly breathed out his precious soul into the embraces of his dear Redeemer, whom he had trusted, and faithfully served in the work of the ministry about forty-three years. He departed betwixt twelve and one o'clock in the morning, on June the 24th, Midsummer-Day, A. D. 1696, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. Happy, thrice happy he, to whom such a sudden change was no surprize, and who could triumph over death, as an unstrung, disarmed enemy, even when he made so fierce an onset! He had often spoke of it as his desire, that, if it were the will of GoD," he might not "outlive his usefulness ;" and it pleased GOD to grant him his desire, and to give him a short passage from the pulpit to the kingdom, from the height of his usefulness to receive the recompence of reward. So was it ordered by him, in whose hands our times are.

His body was buried on the 27th of June following in Whitchurch church, attended with a very great company of true mourners from all the country round, even from Chester and Shrewsbury, who followed his corpse with many tears. He was averse to all ostentation, and used to say to his relations, "When I am dead, make "but little ado about me: a few will serve to bring me "to my grave." But his mind in this respect could not be followed. Many testimonies were given of his great worth, and some are recited in his life written more at large by his son, to which we must refer the reader. We will only subjoin to this long account some few sentences of this excellent man which were gathered up from his preaching and conversation, as he himself never published any thing.

Though Mr. Henry, (says his great and pious son, through the excess of his modesty and self-diffidence, never published any of his labours to the world, nor ever fitted or prepared any of them for the press; yet

none

none more valued the labours of others, or rejoiced more in them; nor have I heard any complain less of the multitude of good books, concerning which he often said, "That store is no sore;" and he was very forward to persuade others to publish; and always expressed a particular pleasure in reading the lives, actions, and sayings of eminent men, ancient and modern, which he thought the most useful and instructive kind of writings. He was also a very candid reader of books, not apt to pick quarrels with what he read, especially when the design appeared to be honest; and when others would find fault, and say this was wanting, and the other amiss, his usual excuse was, "There is nothing perfect under the sun.

'Twas a saying he frequently used, that "every crea"ture is that to us, and only that, which God makes it

to be." And another was, "Duty is our's; events are "GoD's." And another was, "The soul is the man, "and, therefore, that is always best for us, which is best "for our souls." And another was, "The devil cozens us of all our time, by cozening us of the present time." In his thanksgivings for temporal mercies, he often said, "If the end of one mercy were not the beginning of an"other, we were undone:" And to encourage to the work of thanksgiving, he would say, that "new mercies "called for new returns of praise, and then those new "returns will fetch in new mercies." And from Psalm 1. 23. He that offers praise glorifies me, and to him that orders his conversation aright,-he observed, "That thanksgiving is good, but thanksliving is better."

When he spoke of a good name, he usually described it to be "a name for good things with good people." When he spoke of contentment, he used to say, "When "the mind and the condition meet, there is contentment. "Now, in order to that, either the condition must be "brought up to the mind, and that is not only unreason"able but impossible; for, as the condition riseth, the "mind riseth with it; or else the mind must be brought "down to the condition, and that is both possible and rea"sonable." And he observed, "That no condition of life "will of itself make a man content, without the grace of "GoD: for we find Haman discontented in the court; "Ahab discontented on the throne; Adam discontented "in paradise; nay, (and higher we cannot go) the angels "that fell, discontented in heaven itself."

He said, there were four things which he would not for the world have against him: "The word of God, his VOL. IV.

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Own

"own conscience, the prayers of the poor, and the ac "count of godly ministers.

"He that hath a blind conscience which sees nothing, "a dead conscience which feels nothing, and a dumb con"science which says nothing, is in as miserable a condi"tion as a man can be in on this side hell.”

Preaching on 1 Pet. i. 6. If need be, ye are in heaviness, he shewed what need the people of GOD have of afflictions: 66 The same need as our bodies have of physic, "that our trees have of pruning, that gold and silver "have of the furnace, that liquors have of being emptied "from vessel to vessel, that the iron hath of a file, that "the fields have of a hedge, that the child has of a rod.”

Preaching on that prayer of Christ for his disciples, John xvii. 21. That they all may be ONE, which no doubt is an answered prayer, for the Father heard him always: He shewed, "That notwithstanding the many sad divi

sions that are in the church, yet all the saints, as far as "they are sanctified, are ONE; one in relation, one flock, "one family, one building, one body, one bread; one by "representation, one in image and likeness, of one inclí"nation and disposition; one in their aims, one in their askings, one in amity and friendship, one in interest, "and one in their inheritance; nay, they are one in judgment and opinion; though in some things they "differ, yet those things in which they are agreed are many more, and much more considerable, than those things in which they differ. They are all of a mind concerning sin, that it is the worst thing in the world; "concerning Christ, that he is all in all; concerning the "favour of GOD, that it is better than life; concerning "the world, that it is vanity; concerning the word of "GOD, that it is very precious," &c.*

The

The Monthly Reviewers are pleased to acknowledge the Author's "Catholicism and Charity," in passing over the distinctions of Conformity and Non-conformity to the Established Church; but they affect an inquiry, Why Socinus is not admitted into this evangelical publication, as well as Calvin or Beza?-The short answer is: Because Socinus, so far from being evangelical, is not allowed to be a Christian, and would have made therefore a poor figure among our worthies, who loved, adored, and trusted in CHRIST, as their LORD and their God. When these gentlemen can point out among the adherents of the Socini, or among those who deny the essential divinity of JESUS CHRIST, any persons who received out of his fulness grace for grace in their lives, and triumphantly glorified him in their deaths, as almost all those have done, whose names we think it our honour to record in these volumes, then their pretensions to this brotherhood may merit consideration At present, we think it a duty, not to mingle the characters of men, who, when alive, would

not

The great thing that he condemned and witnessed against in the church of Rome, was their monopolizing of the church, and condemning all that are not in with their interests, which is so directly contrary to the spirit of the gospel, as nothing can be more. He sometimes said, "I 66 am too much a catholic to be a Roman catholic."

He often expressed himself well pleased with St. Austin's healing rule, which, if duly observed, would put an end to all our divisions: "Sit in necessariis unitas, in non "necessariis libertas, in omnibus charitas."." In necessary "things let there be unity; in things not necessary, li"berty; and in all things, charity."

He observed from Numb. x. 12. "That all our removes "in this world are but from one wilderness to another. "Upon any change that is before us, we are apt to pro"mise ourselves a Canaan; but we shall be deceived; it "will prove a wilderness."

When some zealous people in the country would have him to preach against top-knots, and other vanities in apparel, he would say, " that was none of his business; if he "could persuade people to Christ, the pride, and vanity, "and excess of those things would fall of course;" and yet he had a dislike to vanity and gaiety of dress, and allowed it not in those that he had influence upon. His rule was, that in such things we must neither be owls nor apes; not affect singularity, nor affect modishness; nor (as he used to observe from 1 Pet. iii. 3.) "make the "putting on of apparel our adorning, because Christians "have better things to adorn themselves with."

Speaking of the causes of atheism, he had this observation: That a head full of vain and unprofitable notions, meeting with a heart full of pride and self-conceited"ness, dispose a man directly to be an atheist."

A gentlewoman, that upon some unkindness betwixt her and her husband, was parted from him, and lived separately near a twelvemonth, grew melancholy, and complained of sin, and the withdrawing of the light of God's countenance, and the want of assurance; he told her, "She must rectify what was amiss between her and her "husband, and return into the way of duty, else it was

"in

not have wished to be so mingled, but rather would have followed the Apostle Paul's precept of rejection, and the Apostle John's example of avoiding those who, like Cerinthus, traduce the Divine Nature of their Go and SAVIOUR. Reputed probity alone will not afford a sufficient title. for Socrates and many other heathens had this, but that sort of Christianity which our excellent Preacher here speaks of, upon John xvii. 21.

"in vain to expect peace." Her friends were against it; but he said, he was confident it would prove so." He said, he had observed concerning himself, "That "he was sometimes the worse for eating, but never for "abstinence; sometimes the worse for wearing too few "clothes, but never for wearing too many; sometimes "the worse for speaking, but never for keeping silence." We have three unchangeables to oppose to all other "mutabilities; an unchangeable covenant, an unchange“able God, and an unchangeable heaven: And, while "these three remain the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever, welcome the will of our heavenly Father in all " events that may happen to us; come what will, nothing 66 can come amiss to us.'

In a letter to a friend, he said: "As to the accession "lately made to your estate, much good may it do you: "that is, much good may you do with it, which is the "true good of an estate. The Lady Warwick would "thank him that would give her a thousand a-year, and "tie her up from doing good with it. I rejoice in the "large heart which God hath given you with your large "estate, without which heart the estate would be your "snare."

We will only add some sayings of Mr. Edward Laurence, one of Mr. Philip Henry's friends, which Mr. Matthew Henry has annexed to the life of his father. They are too choice to be omitted.

At his meals, Mr. Laurence would often speak of using 'God's creatures as his witnesses that he is good; and 'we cannot conceive how much good our GoD doth

every moment.' An expression of his great regard to justice, was that common caution he gave his children, Tremble to borrow two-pence;' and of his tenderness and meekness this: Make no man angry nor sad.' He often said, I adore the wisdom of GoD, that he hath 'not seen meet to trust me with riches.' When he saw little children playing in the streets, he would often lift up his heart in an ejaculatory prayer to God for them, calling them the seed of the next generation.' When his friend chose to ride the back-way into town, he pleasantly checked him, telling him, that his heart had been often refreshed, when he hath looked out of the window, ' and seen a good man go along the streets.' He used to say, That Cromwell did more real prejudice to religion by his hypocrisy, than King Charles II. did, that never pretended to it. As also, That he feared the sins of the land more than the French.'

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A friend