THE METHODIST MAGAZINE, FOR OCTOBER 1812. BIOGRAPHY. AN ACCOUNT OF THE REV. PHILIP HENRY, [Continued from p. 650.] CHAP. V. His ejectment from Worthenbury, his non-conformity, and bis refidence at Broad-Oak, until the year 1672. HA AVING thus laid together the fpecimens of his family religion, we must now return to the hiftory of events that relate to him, and are obliged to look back to the first year of his marriage, which was the year that Charles II. came in; a year of great changes and ftruggles in the land. The grand question now on foot was, whether to conform or not? He ufed all means poffible to fatisfy himself concerning it, by reading and difcourfe, but in vain; his diffatisfaction remained: "however, (fays he) I dare not judge thofe that do conform; for who am I, that I fhould judge my brother?" About this time, being at Chefter, with the Dean, and Chancellor, and others, the great argument they ufed with him, to perfuade him to conform was, that otherwife he would lofe his preferment; " and, (faid they) you are a young man, and are you wifer than the king and bishops?" But this is his reflection upon it afterwards. "God grant that I may never be left to confult with flesh and blood in fuch matters." In Sept. 1660, Mr. Fogg, Mr. Steel, and Mr. Henry, were pro fecuted, at Flint affizes, for not reading the Common Prayer, though as yet it was not enjoined; but there were fome bufy people, who would outrun the law. They entered their appearance and it fell; for foon after, the king's declaration, touching eccleftaftical affairs, came out, which promifed liberty, and gave hopes of fettlement; but at the Spring affizes afterwards, Mr. Steel and Mr. Henry were prefented again. On this he writes, "Be merciful to me, O God, for man would fwallow me up. The Lord show me what he would have me to do, for I am afraid of nothing but fin." VOL. XXXV. OCTOBER, 1812. It It appears, by hints in his Diary, that he had melancholy ap prehenfions at this time about public affairs, feeing and hearing of fo many minifters difturbed, filenced, and enfnared; the ways of Sion mourning, and the quiet of the land treated as the troublers of it; his foul wept in fecret for it. And yet he joined in the annual commemoration of the King's Reftoration, and preached on, Render to Cafar the things that are Cafar's; confidering that it was right in itself; and also the fad pofture of the civil government in the time of the ufurpers, and the king's return without bloodshed, he thought demanded thanksgiving to God. This he would, all his days, fpeak of as a national mercy, but as that which he rejoiced in, with a great deal of trembling, for the Ark of God; and he would fometimes fay, "During thofe years, between forty and fixty, 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 were freedom and reformation, and a face of godliness was upon the nation, though there were thofe that made but a mask of it. Ordinances were administered in power, and in purity; and though there was much amifs, yet religion, at least, in the profeffion of it, did prevail. This we know very well, let men fay what they will of those times." At Michaelmas 1662, he quite left Worthenbury, and came with his family to Broad-Oak, juft nine years from his first coming into the country. Being caft, by divine Providence, into this new place and ftate of life, his concern and prayer were, that he might have grace and wifdom to manage it to the glory of God, which, fays he, is my chief end. Within three weeks after his coming hither, his fecond fon was born, upon which he obferves, "We have no reason to call him Benoni: I wish we had none to call him Ichabod." And on the day of his family thanksgiving for that mercy, he writes, "We have reafon to rejoice with trembling, for it goes ill with the church and people of God, and we have reafon to fear worse, because of our fins, and our enemies' wrath." For feveral years after he came to live at Broad-Oak, he went Conftantly, on Lord's-Days, to the public worship, with his family, at Whitewell chapel, if there were any fupply there; as fometimes there was from Malpas; and if none, then to Tylftock; and when that spring failed, ufually to Whitchurch: he did not preach for a great while, unlefs, occafionally, when he vifited his friends, or to his own family on Lord's-Days, when the weather hindered them from going abroad. He comforted himself, that fometimes in going to public worship, he had an opportunity of instructing and exhorting them that were in company with him, by the way, according as he faw they had need; and in this, his lips fed many, and his tongue was as choice filver: 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 fermons he heard in public, "It is a mercy, (fays he) that we have bread, though it be not, as it has been, of the fineft wheat." Thofe are froward children, who throw away the meat they have, if it be wholefome, because they have not what they would have. When he met with preaching that was weak, his note is, "That is a poor fermon indeed, out of which no good may be learned." He had often occafion to remember that verfe of Mr. Herbert's-" The worft fpeaks foething good; if all want fenfe, God takes a text, and preacheth patience." In thefe circumftances of filence and restraint, he took comfort himself, and administered comfort to others, from Ia. xvi. 4, "Let my outcafts dwell with thee, Moab." God's people may be an outcast people, caft out of men's love, out of their fynagogues, and out of their country; but God will own his people when men caft them out; they are outcasts, but they are his, and, fomewhere or other, he will find a dwelling for them. There were many worthy able minifters thereabouts turned out, both from work and fubfiftence, that had not fuch comfortable support for the life that now is, as Mr. Henry had, for whom he was most affectionately concerned, and to whom he fhewed kindnefs. There were computed, within a few miles round him, fo many minifters turned out to the wide world, ftript of all their maintenance, and expofed to continual hardships, as, with their wives and children, made up above a hundred, that lived upon Providence; though often reduced to wants and straits, they yet were not forsaken, but were enabled to rejoice in the Lord, and to joy in the God of their falvation. One obfervation Mr. Henry made not long before he died, when he had been young, and now was old, "That though many of the ejected Minifters were brought very low, had many children, were greatly haraffed by perfecution, and their friends" generally very poor, and unable to fupport them; yet, in all his acquaintance, he never knew, nor could remember to have heard, of any Non-conformist Minifter in prifon for debt." In the beginning of 1665, when the Act for a royal aid to his Majesty, of two millions and a half, came out, the commiffioners for Flintshire were pleased to nominate Mr. Henry fub-collector of the faid tax for the townfhip of Ifcoyd, and Mr. Steel for the township of Hanmer. They intended thereby, to put an affront and difparagement upon their miniftry, and to fhow that they looked upon them but as laymen. His note upon it is, "It is not a fin which they put us upon, but it is a crofs, and a crofs in our *4Y2* way, |