his own Family on Lords days when the Weather hindred them from going abroad He comforted himself that sometimes in going to publick he had opportunity of instructing and exhorting those that were in company with him by the way according as he saw they had need and in this his Lips fed many and his Tongue was as choice Silver and he acted according to that Rule which he often laid down to himself and others That when we cannot do what we would we must do what we can and the Lord will accept us in it He made the best of the Sermons he heard in Publick It is a Mercy saith he we have Bread though it be not as it hath been of the finest of the Wheat Those are froward Children who throw away the Meat they have if it be wholsome because they have not what they would have When he met with Preaching that was weak his Note is That 's a poor Sermon indeed out of which no good Lesson may be learned He had often occasion to remember that Verse of Mr. Herbert's The worst speaks something good if all want sense God takes the Text and preacheth Patience Nay and once he saith he could not avoid thinking of Eli's Sons who made the Sacrifices of the Lord to be abhorred Yet he went to bear his Testimony to publick Ordinances For still saith he the Lord loves the Gates of Zion more than all the Dwellings of Jacob and so do I. Such then were his Sentiments of things expecting that God would yet open a door of return to former publick Liberty which he much desir'd and prayed for and in hopes of that was backward to fall into the stated Exercise of his Ministry otherwise as were all the sober Nonconformists generally in those parts but it was his grief and burthen that he had not an opportunity of doing more for God He had scarce one Talent of opportunity but that one he was very diligent and faithful in the improvement of When he visited his Friends how did he lay out himself to do them good Being asked once where he made a visit to Expound and Pray which his Friends return'd him thanks for he thus writes upon it They cannot thank me so much for my pains but I thank them more and my Lord God especially for the Opportunity Read his Conflict with himself at this time I own my self a Minister of Christ yet do nothing as a Minister What will excuse me Is it enough for me to say Behold I stand in the Market place and no Man hath hired me And he comforts himself with this Appeal Lord thou knowest what will I have to thy Work publick or private if I had a Call and Opportunity and shall this willing mind be accepted Surely this is a Melancholy Consideration and lays a great deal of blame somewhere that such a Man as Mr. Henry so well qualified with Gifts and Graces for Ministerial Work and in the prime of his time for usefulness so Sound and Orthodox so Humble and Modest so Quiet and Peaceable so Pious and Blameless should be so industriously thrust out of the Vineyard as a useless and unprofitable Servant and laid aside as a despised broken Vessel and a Vessel in which there was no pleasure This is a Lamentation and shall be for a Lamentation especially since it was not his Case alone but the Lot of so many Hundreds of the same Character In these Circumstances of Silence and Restraint he took comfort himself and administred Comfort to others from that Scripture Isa. 16. 4. Let mine out-casts dwell with thee Moab God's People may be an Out-cast People cast out of mens Love their Synagogues their Country but God will own his People when Men cast them out they are out-casts but they are his and somewhere or other he will provide a dwelling for them There were many worthy able Ministers thereabouts turn'd out both from Work and Subsistence that had not such comfortable Support for the Life that now is as Mr. Henry had for whom he was most affectionately concern'd and to whom he shew'd kindness There were computed within a few Miles round him so many Ministers turn'd out to the wide World stript of all their Maintenance and expos'd to continual Hardships as with their Wives and Children having most of them Numerous Families made up above a Hundred that liv'd upon Providence and though oft reduced to wants and straits yet were not forsaken but were enabled to rejoyce in the Lord and to joy in the God of their Salvation notwithstanding to whom the promise was fulfilled Psal. 37. 3. So shalt thou dwell in the Land and verily thou shalt be fed The World was told long since by the Conformists Plea that the worthy Mr. Lawrence Mr. Henry's intimate Friend when he was turn'd out of Baschurch and if he would have Consulted with Flesh and Blood having as was said of one of the Martyrs Eleven good Arguments against Suffering viz. a Wife and Ten Children was ask'd how he meant to maintain them all and cheerfully replied they must all live upon the 6th of Matthew Take no thought for your Life c. and he often sung with his Family Psal. 37. 16. And Mr. Henry hath Noted concerning him in his Diary some time after he was turn'd out that he bore witness to the love and care of our Heavenly Father providing for him and his in his present Condition beyond Expectation One Observation Mr. Henry made not long before he Dyed when he had been young and now was old that though many of the Ejected Ministers were brought very low had many Children were greatly harrassed by Persecution and their Friends generally poor and unable to support them yet in all his Acquaintance he never knew nor could remember to have heard of any Nonconfor mist Minister in Prison for Debt In October 1663. Mr. Steel and Mr. Henry and some other of their Friends were taken up and brought Prisoners to Hanmer under pretence of some Plot said to be on foot against the Government and there they were kept under confinement some days on which he writes it is sweet being in any Condition with a clear Conscience The Sting of Death is Sin and so of Imprisonment also 'T is the first Time saith he I was ever a Prisoner but perhaps may not be the last We felt no hardship but we know not what we may They were after some Days examin'd by the Deputy Lieutenants charged with they knew not what and so dismissed finding verbal security to be forth-coming upon Twenty four hours notice whenever they should be called for Mr. Henry return'd to his Tabernacle with Thanksgivings to God and a hearty prayer for his Enemies that God would forgive them The very next day after they were released a great Man in the Country at whose Instigation they were brought into that trouble died as was said of a drunken Surfeit So that a Man shall say verily there is a God
decent and respectful that it could not but win the Hearts of all he had to do with Never was any Man further from that Rudeness and Morofeness which some Scholars and too many that profess Religion either wilfully affect or carelesly allow themselves in sometimes to the Reproach of their Profession 'T is one of the Laws of our Holy Religion exemplifi'd in the Conversation of this good Man to Honour all Men. Sanctify'd Civility is a great Ornament to Christianity It was a saying he often us'd Religion doth not destroy good Manners and yet he was very far from any thing of Vanity in Apparel or Formality of Compliment in Address but his Conversarion was all Natural and easie to himself and others and little appear'd in him which a severe Critick could call Affected This Temper of his tended very much to the adorning of the Doctrine of God our Saviour and the general Transcript of such an excellent Copy would do much towards the healing of those Wounds which Religion hath received in the House of her Friends by the contrary But to return to his Story The first Latin School he went to was at St. Martin's Church under the teaching of one Mr. Bonner Afterwards he was removed to Battersey where one Mr. Wells was his School master The grateful mention which in some of his Papers he makes of these that were the Guides and Instructors of his Childhood and Youth brings to mind that French Proverb to this purpose To Father Teacher and God All-sufficient none can render Equivolent But in the Year 1643. when he was about Twelve Years old he was admitted into Westminster-School in the Fourth Form under Mr. Thomas Vincent then Usher whom he would often speak of as a most able diligent School-master and one who grieved so much at the Dulness and Non-proficiency of any of his Scholars that falling into a Consumption I have heard Mr. Henry say of him that he even killed himself with false Latin A while after he was taken into the upper School under Mr. Richard Busby afterwards Dr. Busby and in October 1645. he was admitted King's Scholar and was first of the Election partly by his own Merit and partly by the Interest of the Earl of Pembroke Here he profited greatly in School-Learning and all his Days retained his Improvements therein to admiration When he was in Years he would readily in Discourse quote Passages out of the Classic Authors that were not common and had them ad unguem and yet rarely us'd any such things in his Preaching though sometimes if very apposite he inserted them in his Notes He was very ready and exact in the Greek Accents the Quantities of Words and all the several kinds of Latin Verse and often pressed it upon young Scholars in the midst of their University Learning not to forget their School-Authors Here and before his usual Recreation at vacant times was either reading the printed accounts of Publick Occurrences or attending the Courts at Westminster-hall to hear the Trials and Arguments there which I have heard him say he hath often done to the loss of his Dinner and oftner of his Play But Paulo major a canamus Soon after those unhappy Wars begun there was a daily Morning Lecture set up at the Abby-Church between Six and eight of the Clock and Preached by Seven worthy Members of the Assembly of Divines in Course viz. Mr. Marshal Mr. Palmer Mr. Herl Dr. Staunton Mr. Nye Mr. Whitaker and Mr. Hill It was the Request of his pious Mother to Mr. Busby that he would give her Son leave to attend that Lecture daily which he did not abating any thing of his School-Exercise in which he kept pace with the rest but only dispensing with his absence for that Hour And the Lord was pleas'd to make good Impressions on his Soul by the Sermons he heard there His Mother also took him with her every Thursday to Mr. Case's Lecture at St. Martins On the Lord's Days he sat under the powerful Ministry of Mr. Stephen Marshal in the Morning at New Chappel in the Afternoon at St. Margarets Westminster which was their Parish Church in the former place Mr. Marshal Preached long from Phil. 2. 5 6 c. in the latter from Ioh. 8. 36. of our Freedom by Christ. This Minister and this Ministry he would to his last speak of with great Respect and Thankfulness to God as that by which he was through Grace in the beginning of his Days begotten agāin to a lively hope I have heard him speak of it as the saying of some wise Men at that time That if all the Presbyterians had been like Mr. Stephen Marshal and all the Independents like Mr. Ieremiah Burroughs and all the Episcopal Men like Arch-bishop Usher the Breaches of the Church would soon have been heal'd He also attended constantly upon the Monthly Fasts at St. Margarets where the best and ablest Ministers of England Preached before the then House of Commons and the Service of the Day was carried on with great strictness and Solemnity from Eight in the Morning till Four in the Evening It was his constant Practice from Eleven or Twelve Years old to write as he could all the Sermons he heard which he kept very carefully Transcribed many of them fair over after and notwithstanding his many Removes they are yet forth-coming At these monthly Fa◅s as he himself hath Recorded it he had often Sweet Meltings of Soul in Prayer and Con◅ession of Sin particularly once with special Remark when Mr. William Bridg of Yarmouth Prayed and many warm and lively Truths came home to his Heart and he daily increased in that Wisdom and Knowledge which is to Salvation Read his Reflections upon this which he wrote many Years after If ever any Child saith he such as I then was between the Tenth and Fifteenth year of my Age enjoy'd Line upon Line Precept upon Precept I did And was it in vain I trust not altogether in vain My Soul rejoyceth and is glad at the remembrance of it the word distilled as the Dew and Dropt as the Rain I lov'd it and lov'd the Messengers of it their very Feet were beautiful to me And Lord what a Mercy was it that at a time when the poor Countries were laid waste when the noise of Drums and Trumpets and the clattering of Arms was heard there and the way to Sion Mourn'd that then my Lot should be where there was Peace and Quietness where the voice of the Turtle was heard and there was great plenty of Gospel Opportunities Bless the Lord O my Soul as long as I live I will bless the Lord I will praise my God while I have my Being Had it been only the restraint that it laid upon me whereby I was kept from the common Sins of other Children and Youths such as Cursing Swearing Sabbath breaking and the like I were bound to be very Thankful But that it prevailed through Grace effectually to bring me to God How
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
However you cannot but say that you had a Kindness done you to have your lives put into it Thus did he frequently deal with his Children and even Travel in Birth again to see Christ formed in them and from this Topick he generally Argued and he would often say If Infant Baptism were more improved it would be less disputed He not only taught his Children betimes to pray which he did especially by his own Pattern his Method and Expressions in Prayer being very easie and plain But when they were young he put them upon it to pray together and Appointed them on Saturdays in the Afternoon to spend some time together none but they and such of their Age as might occasionally be with them in Reading good Books especially those for Children and in singing and praying and would sometimes tell them for their Encouragement that the God with whom we have to do understands broken Language And if we do as well as we can in the Sincerity of our Hearts we shall not only be accepted but taught to do better To him that hath shall be given He sometimes set his Children in their own reading of the Scriptures to gather out such Passages as they took most notice of and thought most considerable and write them down Though this Performance was very small yet the Endeavour was of good use He also directed them to insert in a Paper Book which each of them had for the purpose Remarkable Sayings and Stories which they met with in Reading such other good Books as he put into their hands He took a Pleasure in relating to them the remarkable Providences of God both in his own time and in the days of Old which he said Parents were taught to do by that Appointment Exod. 12. 26 27. Your Children shall ask you in Time to come what mean you by this Service and you shall tell them so and so What his pious Care was concerning his Children and with what a godly Jealousie he was jealous over them take in one Instance when they had been for a week or Fortnight kindly entertained at B. as they were often he thus writes in his Diary upon their Return home My Care and Fear is lest Converse with such so far above them Though of the best should have Influence upon them to lift them up when I had rather they should be kept low For as he did not himself so he was very Sollicitous to teach his Children not to mind high Things not to desire them not to expect them in this World We shall conclude this Chapter with another Passage out of his Diary Apr. 12. 1681. This Day fourteen Years the Lord took my First-born Son from me the Beginning of my Strength with a Stroke In the Remembrance whereof my heart melted this Evening I beg'd pardon for the Jonah that raised that Storm I blessed the Lord that hath spar'd the Rest I beg'd Mercy Mercy for every one of them and absolutely and unreservedly devoted and dedicated them my self my whole self Estate Interest Life to the will and Service of that God from whom I received all Father Hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come c. CHAP. V. His Ejectment from Worthenbury His Non-conformity his Removes to Broad-Oak and the Providences that were concerning him to the Year 1672. HAving thus laid together the Instances of his Family Religion we must now return to the History of Events that were concerning him and are obliged to look back to the first Year after his Marriage which was the Year that King Charles the Second came in a Year of great Changes and struggles in the Land which Mr. Baxter in his Life gives a full and clear and Impartial Idea of by which it may easily be guess'd how it went with Mr. Henry in his low and narrow Sphere whose Sentiments in those things were very much the same with Mr. Baxter's Many of his best Friends in Worthenbury Parish were lately removed by Death Emeral Family contrary to what it had been and the same Spirit which that Year reviv'd all the Nation over was working violently in that Country viz. a Spirit of great Enmity to such Men as Mr. Henry was Worthenbury upon the Kings coming in returned into its former Relation to Bangor and was look'd upon as a Chappelry dependant upon that Mr. Robert Fogg had for many Years held the sequestred Rectory of Bangor to which now Dr. Henry Bridgman Son to Iohn Bishop of Chester and Brother to the Lord Keeper Bridgeman return'd to the Possession of By which Mr. Henry was soon Apprehensive that his Interest at Worthenbury was shaken but thus he writes The will of the Lord be done Lord If my Work be done here provide some other for this People that may be more Skilful and more Successful and cut out Work for me elsewhere However I will take nothing ill which God doth with me He laboured what he could to make Dr. Bridgman his Friend who gave him good words and was very civil to him and assured him that he would never remove him till the Law did But he must look upon himself as the Doctors Curate and depending upon his Will which kept him in continual expectation of a removal however he continued in his Liberty there above a Year though in very ticklish and precarious Circumstances The Grand Question now on foot was whether to conform or no. He us'd all means possible to Satisfy himself concerning it by reading and discourse particularly at Oxford with Dr. Fell afterwards Bishop of Oxford but in vain his dissatisfaction remain'd however saith he I dare not judge those that do conform for who am I that I shall judge my Brother He hath noted that being at Chester in discourse with the Dean and Chancellor and others about this time the great Argument they used with him to perswade him to conform was that else he would lose his Preferment and what said they you are a young Man and are you wiser then the King and Bishops But this is his reflection upon it afterwards God grant I may never be left to consult â—…ith Flesh and Blood in such matters In September 1660. Mr. Fogg and Mr. Steel and Mr. Henry were Presented at Flint-Assizes for not Reading the Common Prayer though as yet it was not enjoyn'd but there were some busie People that would out-run the Law They entred their Appearance and it fell for soon after the King's Declaration touching Ecclesiastical Affairs came out which promised Liberty and gave hopes of Settlement but the Spring-Assizes afterwards Mr. Steel and Mr. Henry were presented again On this he writes Be merciful to me O God for Man would swallow me up The Lord shew me what he would have me to do for I am afraid of nothing but Sin It appears by the Hints of his Diary that he had Melancholy Apprehensions at this Time about publick Affairs seeing and hearing of so many faithful Ministers distur'b silenced and ensnared the ways
of Sion mourning and the quiet in the Land treated as the troublers of it his Soul wept in Secret for it And yet he join'd in the Annual Commemoration of the King's Restauration and preach'd on Caesar's considering saith he that it was his right also the sad Posture of the Civil Government through Usurpers and the manner of his coming in without Bloodshed This he would all his Days speak of as a national Mercy but what he rejoyced in with a great Deal of Trembling for the Ark of God and he would sometimes say That during those Years between forty and sixty though on Civil accounts there were great Disorders and the Foundations were out of Course yet in the matters of God's Worship things went well there was Freedom and Reformation and a Face of Godliness was upon the Nation tho' there were those that made but a mask of it Ordinances were administred in Power and Purity and though there was much amiss yet Religion at least in the Profession of it did prevail This saith he we know very well let Men say what they will of those times In November 1660. he took the Oath of Allegiance at Orton before Sir Thomas Hanmer and two other Justices of which he hath left a Memorandum in his Diary with this added God so help me as I purpose in my Heart to do accordingly Nor could any more Conscientiously observe that Oath of God than he did nor more sincerely promote the Ends of it That Year according to an Agreement with some of his Brethren in the Ministry who hoped thereby to oblige some People he Preached upon Christmas-day The Sabbath before it happen'd that the 23d Chapter of Leviticus which treats intirely of the Jewish Feasts called there the Feasts of the Lord came in course to be Expounded which gave him occasion to distinguish of Feasts into Divine and Ecclesiastical the Divine Feasts that the Jews had were those there appointed their Ecclesiastical Feasts were those of Purim and of Dedication and in the Application of it he said He knew no Divine Feast we have under the Gospel but the Lord's Day intended for the Commemoration of the whole Mercy of our Redemption And the most that could be said for Christmas was that it is an Ecclesiastical Feast and it is questionable with some whether Church or State though they might make a good Day Esth. 9. 19. could make a Holy Day Nevertheless for asmuch as we find our Lord Iesus Joh. 10. 22. so far complying with the Church Feast of Dedication as to take occasion from the Peoples coming together to Preach to them he purposed to Preach upon Christmas day knowing it to be his Duty in Season and out of Season He Preached on 1 Ioh. 3. 8. For this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the Works of the Devil And he minded his People that it is double dishonour to Iesus Christ to practise the Works of the Devil then when we keep a Feast in Memory of his Manifestation His Annuity from Emeral was now with held because he did not read the Common Prayer tho' as yet there was no Law for Reading of it hereby he was disabled to do what he had been wont for the Help and Relief of others and this he has Recorded as that which troubled him most under that Disappointment but he blessed God that he had a Heart to do good even when his Hand was empty When Emeral Family was unkind to him he reckoned it a great Mercy which he gave God thanks for who makes every Creature to be that to us that it is that Mr. Broughton and his Family which is of considerable Figure in the Parish continued their kindness and respects to him and their countenance of his Ministry which he makes a grateful mention of more than once in his Diary Many attempts were made in the Year 1661. to disturb and ensnare him and it was still expected that he would have been hindred Methinks saith he Sabbaths were never so sweet as they are now we are kept at such uncertainties now a day in they Courts is better than a thousand such a day as this saith he of a Sacrament Day that Year better than ten thousand O that we might yet see many such days He was advis'd by Mr. Ratcliff of Chester and others of his Friends to enter an Action against Mr. P. for his Annuity and did so but concerning the Success of it saith he I am not over sollicitous for though it be my due Luke 10. 7. yet it was not that which I Preached for and God knows I would much rather Preach for nothing than not at all and besides I know assuredly if I should be Cast God will make it up to me some other way After some Proceeding he not only mov'd but sollicited Mr. P. to refer it having learned saith he that it is no Disparagement but an Honour for the Party wronged to be first in seeking Reconciliation The Lord if it be his Will incline his Heart to Peace I have now saith he two great Concerns upon the Wheel one in reference to my Maintenance for time past the other as to my continuance for the future the Lord bâ—… my friend in both but of the two rather in the latter But saith he many of greater Gifts and Grace than I are laid aside already and when my turn comes I know not the Will of God be done He can do his Work without us The issue of this affair was that there having been some Disputes between Mr. P. and Dr. Bridgman about the Tithe of Worthenbury wherein Mr. P. had clearly the better Claim to make yet by the Mediation of Sir Tho. Hanmer they came to this Agreement Septemb. 11. 1661. that Dr. Bridgman and his Successors Parsons of Bangor should have and receive all the Tithe Corn and Hay of Worthenbury without the Disturbance of the said Mr. P. or his Heirs except the Tith-Hay of Emeral Demesn upon Condition that Dr. Bridgman should before the first of November following avoid and discharge the present Minister or Curate Philip Henry from the Chappel of Worthenbury and not hereafter at any time re-admit the said Minister Philip Henry to Officiate the said Cure This is the Substance of the Articles agreed upon between them pursuant to which Dr. Bridgman soon after dismiss'd Mr. Henry and by a Writing under his Hand which was published in the Church of Worthenbury by one of Mr. Puleston's Servants October the 27th following Notice was given to the Parish of that Dismission That Day he Preached his Farewel Sermon on Phil. 1. 27. Only let your Conversation be as becomes the Gospel of Christ. In which as he saith in his Diary his desire and design was rather to profit then to affect it matters not what becomes of me whether I come unto you or else be absent but let your Conversation be as becomes the Gospel His parting Prayer for them was The