and do the Duty of Church Rulers in preaching and feeding the Flock according to the Word and to perswade 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 CHAP. VI. His Liberty by the Indulgence in 1672. and thence forwards to the Year 1681. NOtwithstanding the severe Act against Conventicles in the Year 1670. yet the Nonconformists in London ventur'd to set up Meetings in 1671. and were conniv'd at but in the Country there 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 inefficacy of Rigor tryed for divers Years and to invite Strangers into the Kingdom ratifying the Establishment of the Church of England it suspends Penal Laws against all Nonconformists and Recusants promiseth to License separate places for Meetings limiting Papists only to private Houses On this Mr. Henry writes It is a thing diversly resented as Mens 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 over-throw our Parish-Order which God hath own'd 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 Practise 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 others Hands against the common Enemy the Papists who he foresaw would fish best in troubled Waters This he would chuse much rather than to keep a separate Meeting But it could not be had no not so much as leave to Preach at Whitewel Chapel when it was vacant as it often was though 't 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 'T was several Weeks after the Declaration came out that he received a License to Preach as Paul did in his own House and elsewhere no Man forbidding him This was procur'd for him by some of his Friends at London without his Privity and came to him altogether unexpected 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 Publickly 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 Whitewel 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 publick 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 go a great way He was wont to observe for the encouragement of such as had Meetings in their Houses which sometimes drew upon them inconveniencies That the Ark is a Guest that always pays well for its Entertainment And he Noted that when Christ had borrowed Peter's â—…oat to preach a Sermon out of it he presently repaid him for the Loan with a great draught of Fishes Luke 5. 〈◊〉 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 many Prayers he saw his way very plain before him and addressed himself with all diligence to the improvement of this Gale of Opportunity Some had dismal apprehensions of the issue of it and that there would be an after-reckoning but saith he let us mind our Duty and let God alone to order Events which are 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 Eccl. 11. 4. He that observes the wind shall not sow and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap Those that are minded either to do good or get good must 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 serves the Sluggard for an Excuse While this Liberty lasted he was in labours more abundant many Lectures he Preached abroad in Shrap-shire 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 born again then and there and many there were who asked the way to Sion with their Faces thitherwards and were not Proselyted to a Party but savingly brought home to Jesus Christ. I mean this such
he constantly attended there with his Family was usually with the first and reverently joined in the Publick Service he diligently wrote the Sermons always staid if the Ordinance of Baptism was Administred but not if there were a Wedding for he thought that Solemnity not proper for the Lord's Day He often Din'd the Minister that Preach'd after Dinner he sung a Psalm repeated the Morning Sermon and Pray'd and then attended in like manner in the Afternoon In the Evening he Preach'd to his own Family and perhaps two or three of his Neighbours would drop in to him On those Lord's Days when there was no Preaching at the Chappel he spent the whole Day at home and many an excellent Sermon he Preach'd when there were present only four besides his own Family and perhaps not so many according to the limitation of the Conventicle Act. In these narrow private Circumstances he Preached over the former part of the Assemblies Catechism from divers Texts He also Preached over Psalm 116. besides many particular occasional Subjects What a grief of Heart it was to him to be thus put under a Bushel and consin'd to such a narrow Sphere of Usefulness read in his own words which I shall Transcribe out of an Elegy he made to give vent to his thoughts upon the Death of his worthy Friend Mr George Mainwaring sometime Minister of Malpas who was Silenced by the Act of Uniformity and Dy'd Mar. 14. 1669 70 wherein he thus bewails feelingly enough the like restraints and Confinements of his Friend His later Years he sadly spent Wrap't up in Silence and Restraint A Burthen 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 dumbSabbaths here did prove Loud crying Sabbaths in Heaven above His Tears when he might sow no more Wat'ring what he had Sown before Soon after his Settlement at Broad-Oak he took a young Scholar into the House with him 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 Walberton in Sussex to whom the World is beholden for that Elaborate History of all Religions which he Published in the Year 1695. and from whom is earnestly expected the Performance of that Noble and useful Project for the Record of Providences Betwixt Mr. Henry and him there was a most intire and affectionate Friendship and notwithstanding that distance of place a constant and endearing Correspondence kept up as long as Mr. Henry liv'd It was observ'd that several young Men who had sojourn'd with him and were very hopeful and likely to be serviceable to their Generations dy'd 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 dy'd 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 advis'd all his Friends who design'd 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 betwixt Mr. Henry and that worthy Family continued to his dying day about Thirty Years One Lords day in a Quarter he commonly spent with them besides other interviews And it was a constant rejoycing to him to see Religion and the Power of Godliness uppermost in such a Family as that when not many Mighty not many Noble are called and the Branches of it Branches of Righteousness the planting of the Lord. Divers of the Honourable Relations of that Family contracted a very great 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 In the time of Trouble and Distress by the Conventicle Act in 1670. he kept private and stirr'd 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 observ'd as that which he was troubled at That there was a great deal of precious time lost among Professors when they came together in discoursing of 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 enquiring what Spiritual Benefit and advantage was reaped by it and that we are apt to make the circumstances of our Religious Services more the matter of our Discourse than the Substance of them We shall close this Chapter with two Remarks out of his Diary in the Year 1671. which will shew what manner of Spirit he was of and what were his Sentiments of things at that time One is this All 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 Extravagancies with others by making no difference but laying load on them as if they were as bad as the worst 'T 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 Antichristian and that it is Unlawful to join in the Common Prayer had been effectually to perswade Bishops to Study
was fined 40 l. the pretence of which was this In the Year 1679. Oct. 15. Mr. Kynaston of Oatly a Justice of Peace in Sâ—…shire meeting him and some others coming as he supposed from a Conventicle he was pleas'd to Record their Conviction upon the notorious Evidence and Circumstance of the Fact The Record was Fil'd 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 he wrote of this affair supposeth to be not only the then favourable posture of Publick Affairs 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 resolv'd he should have summum jus 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 certifi'd 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 tho' if they had been so minded they had not wanted opportunities but they were now necessitated to Execute the Sentence of the Shropshire Justices 'T was much press'd 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 give no 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 wronged in the doubling of the Fine Whereupon his Goods were Distrain'd 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 Let 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 carryed away about Thirty three Cart Load of Goods without doors Corn cut upon the Ground Hay Coles c. This made a great noise in the Country and rais'd 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 mov'd or disturb'd 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 our selves may suffer before we dye And yet he rejoyced and blessed God that 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 He frequently expressed the assurance he had that whatever damage he sustain'd God is able to make it up again And as he us'd to say Though we may be losers for 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 Seal'd 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 Benè agere male pati verè Christianum est Soon after this was the Assizes for Flint-shire held at Mold where Sir George Ieffries afterwards Lord Chancellor then Chief Justice of Chester sate 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 that he pleasantly ask'd some of the Gentlmen by what new Law they pressed Carts as they passed upon their occasions along the Road to carry away Goods distreyn'd for a Conventicle It was also said that he spoke with some respect of Mr. Henry saying he knew him and his Character well and that he was a great Friend of his Mothers Mrs. Ieffries of Acton near Wrexham a very pious good Woman and that sometimes at his Mothers Request Mr. Henry had Examin'd him in his Learning when he was a School-Boy and had commended his Proficiency And it was much wonder'd at by many that of all the times Sir George Ieffries went that Circuit though 't is well enough known what was his temper and what the temper of that time yet he never sought any occasion against Mr. Henry nor took the occasions that were offered nor countenanced any Trouble intended him though he was the only Nonconformist 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 a 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 observ'd it in his own Practise I believe for many Years He also mentioned it to some of his Acquaintance who did in like manner observe it It happened that one in Denbighshire to whom he had Communicated it was so well pleas'd with it that he wrote a Letter of it to a Friend of his at a distance which Letter happen'd 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 Ieffries had that it was a Branch of the Presbyterian Plot and rally'd the Parties accus'd severely It appear'd either by the Letter or by the Confession of the Parties that they received the Project from Mr. Henry which it was greatly fear'd would bring him into trouble but Sir George to the admiration of many let it fall and never enquir'd further into it It seems there are some Men whose ways so please the Lord that he makes even their Enemies to be at peace with them and there is nothing lost by trusting in God Mr. Henry at the next Assizes after he was Distrain'd 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 obey'd and that there was
Baptize a Child and desir'd the Congregation to bear witness That he did not Baptize that Child into the Church of England nor into the Church of Scotland nor into the Church of the Dissenters nor into the Church at Broad-Oak but into the visible Catholick Church of Iesus Christ. After this he Baptized very many and always publickly though being in the Country they were commonly carried a good way The publick Administration of Baptism he not only judged most agreeable to the Nature and End of the Ordinance but found to be very profitable and edifying to the Congregation for be always took that occasion not only to explain the nature of the Ordinance but affectionately and pathetically to excite People duly to improve their Baptism He usually received the Child immediately out of the hands of the Parent that presented it and return'd it into the same hands again with this or the like charge Take this Child and bring it up for God He us'd to say that one advantage of publick Baptism was that there were many to join in Prayer for the Child in which therefore and in Blessing God for it he was usually very large and particular After he had Baptized the Child before he gave it back to the Parent he commonly used these words We receive this Child into the Congregation of Christ's Church having washed it with Water in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost in token that hereafter it shall not be ashamed to confess Christ Crucified and manfully to fight c. He Baptized many adult Persons that through the Errour of their Parents were not Baptized in Infancy and some in Publick The Solemn Ordinance of the Lord's Supper he constantly Celebrated in his Congregation once a Month and always to a very considerable number of Communicants He did not usually observe publick days of Preparation for that Ordinance other than as they fell in course in the weekly Lectures nor did he ever appropriate any particular Subject of his Preaching to Sacrament-days having a great felicity in adapting any profitable Subject to such an occasion and he would say What did the Primitive Christians do when they Celebrated the Lord's Supper every Lord's day His Administration of this Ordinance was very solemn and affecting He had been wont to go about in the Congregation and to deliver the Elements with his own hand but in his latter time he delivered them only to those near him and so they were handed from one to another with the assistance of one who supplied the Office of a Deacon as having also the Custody and disposal of the Money gathered for the use of the Poor Mr. Henry taking and carefully keeping a particular account of it Such as desir'd to be admitted to the Lord's Supper he first discoursed with concerning their Spiritual State and how the Case stood between God and their Souls not only to examine them but to instruct and teach them and to encourage them as he saw occasion gently leading those whom he discern'd to be serious though weak and timorous He usually discoursed with them more than once as finding Precept upon Precept and Line upon Line necessary but he did it with so much Mildness and Humility and tenderness and endeavour to make the best of every body as did greatly affect and win upon many He was herein like our Great Master who can have compassion on the ignorant and doth not despise the day of small things But his admission of young People out of the rank of Catechumens into that of Communicants had a peculiar solemnity in it Such as he Catechiz'd when they grew up to some Years of discretion if he observed them to be intelligent and serious and to set their Faces Heaven-wards he marked them out to be admitted to the Lord's Supper and when he had a competent number of such twelve or fifteen perhaps or more he order'd each of them to come to him severally and discoursed with them of the things belonging to their Everlasting Peace put it to their choice whom they would serve and endeavoured to affect them with those things with which by their Catechisms they had been made acquainted drawing them with the Cords of a Man and the bands of Love into the way which is called Holy For several Lord's days he Catechized them particularly in Publick touching the Lord's Supper and the Duty of Preparation for it and their Baptismal Covenant which in that Ordinance they were to take upon themselves and to make their own Act and Deed. Often telling them upon such occasions that they were not to oblige themselves to any more than what they were already obliged to by their Baptism only to bind themselves faster to it Then he appointed a day in the Week before the Ordinance when in a solemn Assembly on purpose he prayed for them and preached a Sermon to them proper to their Age and Circumstances and so the following Sabbath they were all received together to the Lord's Supper This he looked upon as the right Confirmation or Transition into the State of adult Church membership The more solemn our Covenanting with God is the more deep and the more durable the impressions of it are likely to be He hath Recorded it in his Diary upon one of these occasions as his Hearts desire and prayer for those who were thus admitted That it might be as the day of their Espousals to the Lord Jesus and that they might each of them have a Wedding Garment 3. The Discipline he observed in his Congregation was not such as he could have wished for but the best he could get considering what a scatter'd Flock he had which was his trouble but it could not be helped He would sometimes apply to the circumstances he was in that of Moses Deut. 12. 8 9. However I see not but the end was effectually attained by the methods he took though there wanted the formality of Officers and Church-Meetings for the purpose If he heard of any that walked disorderly he sent for them and reproved them gently or sharply as he saw the Case required If the Sin had scandal in it he suspended them from the Ordinance of the Lord's Supper till they gave some tokens of their Repentance and Reformation And where the offence was publick and gross his judgment was that some publick satisfaction should be made to the Congregation before Readmission But whatever offence did happen or breaches of the Christian Peace Mr. Henry's peculiar Excellency lay in restoring with the Spirit of meekness which with his great Prudence and Love and Condescension did so much command the respects of his People and win upon them that there was a Universal Satisfaction in all his Management and it may truly be said of him as it was of David 2 Sam. 3. 36. That whatsoever he did pleased all the People And it is an Instance and Evidence that those Ministers who will Rule by Love and