our English liturgy, in the office of burial, and frequenti In the midst of life, we are in death."

ufed it:

A little before his ficknefs and death, being fummer time, he had feveral of his children, and his children's children, about him, at Broad-Oak; with whom he was much refreshed, and very chearful; but ever and anon fpoke of the fashion he was in, as paffing away; and often told them, he fhould be there but a while to bid them welcome. And he was obferved frequently in prayer, to beg of GOD, that " he would make us ready for "that, which would come certainly, and might come "fuddenly." One afking him how he did, he anfwered; "I find the chips fly off apace; the tree will be down "fhortly."

The fabbath but one before he died, being, in the course of his expofition, come to that difficult part of fcripture, the fortieth of Ezekiel, and the following chapters; he said he would endeavor to explain thofe prophecies to them; and added; "If I do not do it now, I never shall :" And he obferved, that the only prophetical fermon which our Lord Jefus preached, was but a few days before he died. This many of his hearers not only reflected upon afterwards, but took notice of at that time, with a concern, as having fomething in it more than ordinary. On the Lord's day, June 21, 1696, he went through the work of the day with his ufual vigor and livelinefs. He was then preaching over the first chapter of St. Peter's fecond epifile, and was that day on thofe words, add to your faith virtue, verfe 5th. He took virtue for chriftian courage and refolution in the exercife of faith; and the last thing he mentioned, in which chriftians have need of courage, is in dying; for (as he often ufed to fay) it is a ferious "thing to die; and to die is a work by itfelf."

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On the Tueday following, June 23, he rofe at fix o'clock, according to his cuftom, after a better night's fleep than ordinary, and in ufual health. Between feven and eight o'clock he performed family worship, according to his manner; he expounded, very largely, the former half of the 104th Pfalm, and fung it; but he was fomewhat fhorter in prayer than he ufed to be, being then (as it was thought) taken ill. Blefjed is that fervant, whom bis Lord, when he comes, fhall find fo doing. Immediately after prayer he retired to his chamber, not faying any thing of his illness, but was foon after found upon his bed in great extremity of pain, in his back, breast, and bowels; it seemed to be a complicated fit of the stone

and

and cholic together, with very great extremity. The means that had been used to give him relief in his illness, were altogether ineffectual: He had not the leaft intermiflion or remiffion of pain, neither up nor in bed. He had faid fometimes, "That GOD's Ifraei may find for"dan rough; but there's no remedy; they muft through "it to Canaan ;" and he would tell of a good man that ufed to fay, He was not so much afraid of death as of 'dying.' We know they are not the godly people, part of the defcription of whofe condition it is, that there are no bands in their death; and yet their end is peace, and their death gain, and they have hope in it.

It was two or three hours after he was taken ill, before he would fuffer a meffenger to be fent to Chefter, for his fon, and for the doctor, faying; "He fhould either be bet"ter or dead before they could come :" But at last he said, as the prophet did to his importunate friends, Send. About eight o'clock that evening they came, and found him in the fame extremity of pain, which he had been in all the day. And nature, being before fpent with his conftant and indefatigable labors, now funk under its burden, and was quite unable to grapple with so many hours inceffant pain. What further means were then ufed proved fruitlefs. He apprehended himfelf going apace, and faid to his fon when he came in, "O fon, you are welcome "to a dying father: I am now ready to be offered, and the "time of my departure is at hand." His pain continued very acute, but he had peace within. "I am tormented

"faid he once); but, bleffed be GOD, not in this "ame;" and, foon after, "I am all on fire," (when at the fame time his extreme parts were cold) but he prefently added, "Bleffed be GOD, it is not the fire of "hell."

Towards ten or eleven o'clock that night, his pulfe and fight began to fail; of the latter he himfelf took notice, and inferred from it the near approach of his diffolution. He took an affectionate farewell of his dear yoke-fellow, with a thousand thanks for all her love, and care, and tendernefs, left a bleffing for all his dear children, and their dear yoke-fellows and little ones, that were abfent. He faid to his fon, who fat under his head; "Son, the Lord "blefs you, and grant that you may do worthily in your "generation, and be more ferviceable to the church of "GOD than I have been." Such was his great humility to the laft. And when his fon replied, O Sir, pray for me, that I may but tread in your fteps;' he anfwered;

6

"Yea,

"Yea, follow peace and holiness; and then let them

what they will."---More he would have faid to bear his dying teftimony to the way in which he had walked ; but nature was fpent, and he had not strength to exprefs it.

His understanding and fpeech continued almoft to the laft breath; and he was ftill, in his dying agonies, calling upon GOD, and committing himfelf to him. One of the laft words he faid, when he found himself just ready to depart, was, "O death, where is thy ----;" with that his fpeech faultered, and within a few minutes (after about fixteen hours' illnefs) he quietly breathed out his precious foul into the embraces of his dear Redeemer, whom he had trufted, and faithfully ferved, in the work of the mi niftry, about forty-three years. He departed betwixt twelve and one o'clock in the morning, on June the 24th, Midfummer-Day, A. D. 1696, in the fixty-fifth year of his age. Happy, thrice happy he, to whom fuch a fudden change was no furprize, and who could triumph over death, as an unftrung, difarmed enemy, even when he made fo fierce an onfet! He had often spoke of it as his defire, that, if it were the will of GOD," he might not "outlive his usefulness;" and it pleafed GOD to grant him his defire, and to give him a fhort paffage from the pulpit to the kingdom, from the height of his ufefulness, to receive the recompence of reward. So was it ordered by him, in whofe 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 corpfe with many tears. He was averfe to all oftentation, and used to fay to his relations, "When I am dead, make bui

little ado about me; a few will ferve to bring me to my "grave." But his mind in this refpect could not be followed. Many teftimonies were given of his great worth, and fome are recited in his life written more at large by his fon, to which we muft refer the Reader. We will only fubjoin to this long account fome few fentences of this excellent man, which were gathered up from his preaching and converfation, as he himself never published any thing.

Though Mr. Henry, (fays his great and pious fon) through the excefs of his modefty and felf-diffidence, never publifhed any of his labors to the world, nor ever fitted or prepared any of them for the prefs; yet

none

hone more valued the labors of others, or rejoiced more in them; nor have I heard any complain lefs of the multitude of good books, concerning which he often faid, "That ftore is no fore;" and he was very forward to perfuade others to publish; and always expreffed a particular pleasure in reading the lives, actions, and fayings of emihent men, antient and modern, which he thought the most ufeful and inftructive kind of writings. He was also a very candid reader of books, not apt to pick quarrels with what he read, efpecially when the defign appeared to be honeft; and when others would find fault, and fay, this was wanting, and the other amifs, his ufual excufe was, "There is nothing perfect under the fun."

'Twas a faying he frequently ufed, 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 foul is the man, "and, therefore, that is always beft for us, which is beft "for our fouls :" And another was, "The devil cozens "us of all our time, by cozening us of the prefent time."

In his thanksgivings for temporal mercies, he often faid, "If the end of one mercy were not the beginning of ano"ther, we were undone:" And to encourage to the work of thanksgiving, he would fay, that "new mercies called "for new returns of praife; and then thofe new returns "will fetch in new mercies." And from Pfalm 1. 23. He that offers praise glorifies me, and to him that orders his converfation aright; -- he obferved, "That thanksgiving is "good, but thankfliving is better."

When he spoke of a good name, he ufually defcribed it to be," a name for good things with good people." When he spoke of contentment, he ufed to fay, "When "the mind and the condition meet, there is contentinent. "Now, in order to that, either the condition must be "brought up to the mind, and that is not only unreason"able but impoffible; for, as the condition rifeth, the mind "rifeth with it; or elfe the mind must be brought down "to the condition, and that is both poffible and reafonable.' And he observed, "That no condition of life will of it"felf make a man content, without the grace of GOD; "for we find Haman difcontented in the court; Ahab dif" contented on the throne; Adam difcontented in para"dife; nay (and higher we cannot go) the angels that "fell, difcontented in heaven itself."

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

H

66 OWIL

"own confcience, the prayers of the poor, and the aŝ "count of godly minifters.

"He that hath a blind confcience which fees nothing, a dead confcience which feels nothing, and a dumb con"fcience which fays nothing, is in as miferable a condi❝tion as a man can be in, on this fide hell.”

Preaching on 1 Pet. i. 6. If need be, ye are in heavinessHe fhewed what need the people of GOD have of afflictions: "The fame need as our bodies have of phyfic, "that our trees have of pruning, that gold and filver "have of the furnace, that liquors have of being emptied "from veffel to veffel, 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 Chrift for his difciples, John xvii. 21. That they all may be ONE, which no doubt is an anfwered prayer, for the Father heard him always : He fhewed, "That notwithstanding the many fad dívi"fions that are in the church, yet all the faints, as far as "they are fanctified, are ONE; one in relation, one flock, "one family, one building, one body, one bread; one by "reprefentation, one in image and likenefs, of one incli“nation and difpofition; one in their aims, one in their afkings, one in amity and friendfhip, one in intereft, and one in their inheritance; nay, they are one in judgement and opinion; though in fome things they "differ, yet thofe things in which they are agreed are many more, and much more confiderable, than those things in which they differ. They are all of a mind "concerning fin, that it is the worst thing in the world; "concerning Chrift, that he is all in all; concerning the "favor 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."*

6.

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The

The Monthly Reviewers are pleased to acknowledge the Author's "Catholicifi and Charity" in palling over the diftinctions of Conformity and Non-conformity to the Etablished Church; but they affect an Inquiry, why Socinus is not admitted into this evangelical Publication, as well as Calvin or Beza.---The fhort Answer is, because Socinus, fo far from being evangelical, is not allowed to be a Chriflian, and would have made therefore a poor figure among our Worthies, who irved, adored, and trusted in CHRIST, as their LORD and their GOD. When thefe Gentlemen can point out among the Adherents of the Socini, or among those who deny the effential Divinity of JESUS CHRIST, any Perfons who received out of his Fuluefs Grace for Grace in their Lives, and triumphantly glorified him in their Deaths; as almost all thofe have done, whofe Names we think it our Honor to record in there Volumes; then their pretentions to this Brotherhood may merit Confideration. At prefent, we think it a Duty not to mingle

the