leaders and rulers of the Church party,—the Presbyterians, in the day of that Church's distress (when James II. was bringing in popery on the back of the Church of England's own professions and principles), nobly and disinterestedly arrayed themselves on the side of the Church, and patriotically aided in the defeat of the royal bigot's cunning but unconstitutional machinations. And so they were mainly instrumental in securing a peaceful and happy Revolution. 15,000 families were ruined.-Sir James Macintosh, History of the Revolution, pp. 166, 175; and Cotton Mather's History of New England, lib. iii., p. 4. TERIANS. Lord Macaulay says (History of England, vol. ii., pp. 215, 347): "After the Reformation, when her (the Church of England's) power was at the height, she had breathed nothing but vengeance. She had encouraged, urged, almost compelled the Stuarts to requite with perfidious ingratitude the recent services of the PRESBYAt this conjuncture (James the Second's popish struggle) the Protestant Dissenters of London won for themselves a title to the lasting gratitude of their country. With a noble spirit, they arrayed themselves side by side with the members of the Church in defence of the fundamental laws of the realm. Baxter, Bates, and Howe distinguished themselves by their efforts to bring about this coalition. The zeal of their flocks outran that of the pastors." IV. PHILIP HENRY: AN EJECTED PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER.1 WHAT enduring vitality attaches to noble character! Philip Henry, of all men least covetous of fame, seems destined to an immortality that springs perennial from age to age. Of Welsh extraction on the paternal side, he was born 24th August, 1631, within the precincts of Whitehall Palace; his father having a place with considerable perquisites as keeper of the postern-gate at the garden stairs by the river, through which he had to give admission to Privy Councillors and others who came by water. "The witnesses at my baptism were Philip, Earl of Pembroke, who gave me my name and was kind to me to the day of his death; James, Earl of Carlisle; and the Countess of Salisbury." Philip Henry did no discredit to such a birthplace or so distinguished sponsors. He was naturally a well-favoured child, and soon began to develop that graceful suavity of speech and demeanour which never left him. The young princes were his occasional associates, Prince Charles, afterwards Charles II., being a year older, and Prince James, afterwards James II., two years younger. 1 Chiefly adapted from Author's Life of Philip Henry, in Religious Tract Society's new Biographical Series, No. 51. 2 He is usually referred to as Matthew Henry's father; but he becomes dearer for his own sake, the better he gets known. There is a charm about him of a kind that does not belong to his distinguished but more prosaic son. Philip Henry's unambitious temper appears in his motto, from Thomas à Kempis, Bene vixit qui bene latuit. But though fond of the " quiet retreat" of his study and the silent shade" of his country pastorate, he was, by the diligent improvement of his leisure time, unwittingly rearing a monument to himself in the mass of carefully digested material which was turned to such good account in that delicious morsel of Christian biography, The Life of Philip Henry, by his son Matthew; and the three sets of Memoirs of the Henry family by Sir John Bickerton Williams, F.S.A.; and most recently, in The Diaries and Letters of Philip Henry, 1882. In him these gracious words are verified afresh "The sweet remembrance of the just AT WESTMINSTER SCHOOL AND CHRIST CHURCH, Oxford. From earliest childhood, Philip Henry was piously nurtured and guarded from the contaminations of Court life by a beloved and revered mother, MAGDALEN ROCHDALE, who had imbibed much of the devout and anxious Puritan spirit, and of whom he writes, "Living where she had opportunity of enjoying worldly delights extraordinary, she was dead to them. She looked well to the ways of her household, prayed with them daily, catechised her children, and brought them constantly to public ordinances." Philip Henry was brought into contact with the great events of 1640-1642, at their very centre: events like the assembling of the Long Parliament; the tumults and mobs against the Bishops and in favour of the Grand Remonstrance; and the rash attempt of the King to seize the patriot leaders, followed by his flight and their triumphant return to Westminster. He cherished grateful memories of the royal family; and whatever he thought in later life as a Presbyterian respecting Laud and his policy, he was never slow to mention his own kindly reminiscences of the Archbishop personally. The sharp active Primate not unfrequently noticed with approval the eagerness of the boy to open the postern for his Grace, when hastening to cross the river to Lambeth from some Privy Council meeting.1 It would not be easy to light on a finer picture of Christian. boyhood than that of Philip Henry. After good preparatory training, he is admitted in 1643, at the age of twelve, to Westminster School. Passing with distinction through the fourth form, he ere long comes under the immediate care of its redoubtable head-master, Dr. Richard Busby, whose name has become proverbial as a preceptor of youth. Philip Henry's 1 After Laud had been sent to the Tower, Philip Henry once went with his father and saw him there-a visit rendered memorable to the boy by the Archbishop giving him some bright new coined pieces of money. Philip Henry chose the Presbyterian side in the coming conflict, striving to unite in himself the Constitutional Loyalist and the Evangelical Churchman. But never, even when an outcast and persecuted sufferer, did he cease to cherish these early recollections. And never did they fail to keep bitterness from his spirit, without in any way impairing his own deliberate convictions. mother, in her religious care for her boy, stipulated he should attend the early morning lecture, set up from seven to eight o'clock at the Abbey in connection with the Westminster Assembly of Divines. Writing of the seven preachers who conducted that service, Stephen Marshall, Herbert Palmer, Charles Herle, Philip Nye, with Whitaker, Stanton, and Hill, he says: "I was their constant hearer, at the request of my dear mother to the master, who dispensed with my absence from school that while; and I wrote their sermons as well as I could. She took me also with her every Thursday to the lecture at St. Martin's, and every monthly fast to St. Margaret's, Westminster, which was our parish church, where preached the ablest men in England before the House of Commons." These and other influences then surrounding him were among the chief determining elements of his life. But though drawing him in an opposite direction, they did not interfere with his rise in the good graces of Dr. Busby, whose favourite pupil indeed he ere long became. In 1645 he was admitted King's Scholar, and was used by Dr. Busby for gathering references for his celebrated Greek Grammar. But Philip Henry's beloved mother was not spared to see her son's further progress. She was cut off by consumption in the spring of that year. With what inexpressible joy and thankfulness she would have hailed the great religious decision and spiritual turning-point of her beloved boy in 1647 ! This to her would have been "above all Greek, above all Roman fame." Here is the touching record of April 1647, when he was sixteen years of age: "The Lord was graciously pleased to bring me home effectually to Himself by means of my schoolmaster, Mr. Richard Busby, at the time of the solemn preparation for the Communion then observed. The Lord recompense it a thousandfold into his bosom. I hope I shall never forget. There had been treaties before between my soul and Jesus, with some weak overtures to Him; but then, then I think it was that the match was made." But the time had come for Philip Henry to pass from Busby's charge, and repair to the University. Of the ten elections in May, 1647, five were for Oxford and five for Cambridge. The second place for Oxford fell by right of merit to Philip Henry. So he is entered Commoner at Christ Church on December 15th, the Earl of Pembroke sending him ten pounds to set out with. On March 24th, 1648, he is admitted student of Christ Church by Dr. Henry Hammond, subdean, who called him god-brother, the Earl of Pembroke having stood god-father to them both. He takes his Bachelor's degree 7th February, 1651, and proceeds Master of Arts 10th December, 1652, discharging during the next year or two several University offices with great credit and honour. He But Philip Henry's mind is bent on the ministry. preaches his first probationary sermon in January 1653, at South Hinksey, near Oxford. "The Lord make use of me as an instrument of His glory and His Church's good in this high and holy calling," he writes in his diary. He is wishful to continue his studies some time further, but an unexpected offer changes for him the whole scene of a lifetime. In that section of Flintshire which is separated from the rest of its county, and curiously embedded between Shropshire 1 These two admirable characters, Henry Hammond and Philip Henry, the very excellent of the earth, got speedily separated amid the convulsions of the times. Each went his several way in life; Hammond, to be the hope of the Anglican party, and Philip Henry, the glory of an ejected remnant. Oxford had been the stronghold of Royalists and High Churchmen. But now that Parliament had acquired the ascendency, a commission was sent down to purge the University. Under the test question, Will you submit to the power of Parliament in this present visitation?" Hammond and many others were ejected. Philip Henry's guarded answer was accepted: "I submit as far as I may with a safe conscience and without perjury," he himself acquiescing in the Covenant, as well as in the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. But he saw further changes forcibly effected after Parliament and the army had come to an open rupture. The Presbyterian, Dr. Edward Reynolds, who had supplanted the Episcopalian, Dr. Fells, as Dean of Christ Church, is ejected for not taking the engagement to Cromwell, and gives place to Dr. Owen, the Independent. Unpropitious as these political invasions and turmoils might be supposed to be for studious life, yet we are told Philip Henry "would often mention with thankfulness to God, what great helps and advantages he then had in the University, not only for learning, but for religion and piety. Serious godliness was in reputation. . . Many of the scholars met together for prayer and Christian conference, to the great confirming of one another's hearts and preparing of them for the service of the Church in their generation." 2 Some Latin verses of his are found in the volume of Congratulatory Poems from Oxford, on occasion of Cromwell's glorious peace with Holland in 1654. |