moderate dissenters, upon their own principles, to do it. The employing persons of a different religion from the established has been prac tised in all countries where liberty of conscience has been allowed. We have gone further already in excluding dissenters than any other country has done. Whatever reasons there were to apprehend our religion in danger from the papists, when the test-act was made, yet there does not seem the least danger to it from the dissenters now. On the other hand, I can see very plain inconveniences from this bill at present. As it is brought in, this last time, indeed, they have added a preamble, which, though it was in the first edition of the bill, was left out in the second; namely, that the act of toleration should be always kept inviolable; but the toleration act being to take away all the penalties that a man might incur by going to a separate congregation, and the occasional bill being to lay new penalties upon those that do it, how they can say that this is not in itself a violation of the other, I cannot easily comprehend. I doubt it will put people in mind of what passed in France, where every edict against the protestants began with a protestation, that the edict of Nantes ought always to be preserved inviolable, till that very edict was in express words repealed. At a time that all Europe is engaged in a bloody and expensive war; that this nation has not only such considerable foreign enemies to deal withal, but has a party in her own bowels ready upon all occasions to bring in a popish pretender, and involve us all in the same or rather worse calamities than those from which, with so much blood and treasure, we have been freed;—at a time that the protestant dissenters, (however they may be in the wrong by separating from us, yet,) are heartily united with us against the common foes to our religion and government; what advantage those who are in earnest for defending these things can have, by lessening the number of such as are firmly united in this common cause, I cannot, for my life, imagine; therefore, I am for throwing out the bill without giving it another reading." The good archbishop further rendered himself obnoxious to her majesty by the zeal he manifested for securing a protestant succession. He even ventured to enter into a correspondence with the electress Sophia, on the subject of the Hanoverian succession. In April, 1706, he was nominated first com. missioner for effecting the union with Scotland. In this same year he warmly supported the resolution of the majority of the peers, that "the church of England, as by law established, is in a most safe and flourishing condition, and whosoever goes about to suggest and insinuate

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In Lord Dartmouth's notes on Burnet's History of his own Time,' we find the following curious passage regarding the archbishop: "I was ordered by the queen to go to Lambeth and acquaint the archbishop that she thought it necessary that some censure should pass upon Whiston and his book, which gave great offence. He said it was a bad book, and there were a great many, but the worst of all came from abroad, and wished there might be some stop put to that. I told him there were bad books everywhere, but which did his grace mean? He said there was one Bayle had wrote a naughty book about a comet that did a great deal of harm. I told him I had read it. and did not think there was much in it; the chief design being to prove that idolatry was worse than atheism, and that false worship was more offensive to God than none. He said, indeed, he had not read it, and I found by his discourse that he had not read Whiston's; which, I told him, struck at the essentials of the Christian religion. He said there were some difficulties and disputes about prosecuting men for their opinions, and I never could prevail with him to tell me plainly, whether he would do what the queen desired of him, or no. But he afterwards sent me a very unintelligible letter, that concluded with excusing his not having wrote with his own hand, because he had the gout in both his feet."

that the church is in danger, is an enemy to the queen, the church, and the kingdom." This resolution was come to in consequence of the publication of a malicious pamphlet, entitled, 'The Memorial of the Church of England,' said to have been written by Counsellor Pooley and Dr Drake, and the strenuous efforts of Rochester and others to get up the well-known high church tocsin against the whigs.

The archbishop did not long survive the coronation of George I.,his death occurring on the 14th of December, 1715. Calamy says of the archbishop: He was a very steady man: had he died in the reign of Queen Anne, (as many expected,) it was generally thought that Dr Atterbury, bishop of Rochester, would have succeeded him: but this was what God in mercy prevented." Baxter too regarded him with warm admiration. After the praise of such men it is hardly worth while to notice the flippant calumnies of Swift, who calls Tenison "the most good-for-nothing prelate, and the dullest man he ever knew.'

Matthew Henry.

BORN A. D. 1662.-DIED a. d. 1714.

MATTHEW, the second son of Philip Henry, was born on the 18th of October, 1662, at Broad Oak, a farm-house in the township of Iscoyd in Flintshire, about three miles from Whitchurch in Salop, whither his father had retired on the passing of the act of uniformity.

During infarcy and childhood Matthew's health was delicate, but he gave early indications of much mental activity and a studious disposition. It is affirmed, that at the infantile age of three, he not only read the Bible distinctly, but even with a knowledge and observation which few children of twice his years display. His early proficiency in the rudiments of education, and his great and rapid advancement in his subsequent studies, were doubtless in a great measure due to the extraordinary attention which his father's seclusion from the duties of a public station enabled him to give to the studies and mental discipline of his family. Our young nonconformist was also greatly indebted to the affectionate and skilful tutoring of a young gentleman, who happened to reside for a time at Broad Oak, previous to his going to the university, and who took Matthew under his special charge. The efforts and advancement of the scholar kept pace with his privileges, and some little attention was necessary on the part of his parents to prevent him injuring his health by too close application to the studies prescribed him,

When about ten years of age, the expectations which his fond parents had begun to form of him were nearly fatally blasted. He was reduced by a slow fever to the very brink of the grave; but a kind providence again restored him to their arins, and under circumstances which made a deep impression, not only upon the hearts of the parents, but on that of the young sufferer himself. From this time his deportment, which had always been grave and orderly, became marked by an uncommon

3 Memoirs of Dr Tenison.-Calamy.—Baxter.

seriousness of disposition in one so young, and he now began to spend much of his time in retirement within his own closet.

It is believed, that, from his childhood, Matthew Henry had a strong and decided inclination to the ministry. It was evinced in many of those little innocent practices by which children often give indication of a predilection for some particular profession or employment. But it was not till his eighteenth year that, with an ultimate view towards devoting his life to the ministry of the gospel, he was placed under the tuition of that faithful minister,' Mr Thomas Doolittle, who kept a private academy at Islington. On the breaking up of Mr Doolittle's establishment, young Henry was sent for a short time to Gray's Inn, where he bestowed a good deal of attention upon "the noble science of the law;" but without once flinching in heart and purpose from the nobler science and office which he had early coveted-the science of the gospel, and, "office of a bishop." It must be noticed, that at this early period in their history, the nonconformists of England had no regular seminaries for the education of their youth for the ministerial office. It was doubtless, therefore, more with a view to the advantages to be derived from conversation with men of education, and to avail himself of the facilities of learning which the metropolis afforded, than with any serious wish or intention to explore the profundities of jurisprudence, that young Henry entered of Gray's Inn. Accordingly, we find him paying considerable attention to the modern languages while in London, and availing himself of all the opportunities which he possessed of extending his acquaintance amongst divines, and other learned men. He frequently heard sermon from Dr Stillingfleet, or Dr Tillotson, and he attended a weekly divinity disputation kept up by some young men under the presidency of Mr Glascock, a very worthy and ingenious young minister.

In the month of June, 1686, Mr Henry returned to Broad Oak, and soon after commenced preaching. In 1687, he accepted the invitation of a church at Chester, to undertake the pastoral office amongst them The same year he married, but lost his wife soon after by small-pox. His next lady was a member of the family of the Warburtons of Grange, in Chester, with whom he lived more than twenty years, and by whom God gave him a numerous progeny. After Mr Henry had been settled about seven years at Chester, he lost his father, an event which he deeply felt. To the memory of this beloved parent he has dedicated one of the most beautiful and interesting, because most simple and unaffected, pieces of biography in the English language.

In Mr Henry's zealous ministrations, the villages and towns around Chester also largely participated. At some of them, particularly Moldsworth, Grange, Bromborough, Elton, and Saighton, he preached a monthly lecture. At Beesdon, Mickledale, Peckferton, Wrexham, Stockbridge, Burton, and Darnal, he preached still more frequently. His labour every Sabbath-day, in his own congregation, consisted of two double services, as they are called, comprising first a lecture or exposition, and then a sermon. On Saturdays he catechised the young people; and besides this, he had one week-day lecture, with other religious meetings, in addition to visiting the sick, preaching to the prisoners in the castle, and the various other occasional services which will impose themselves, whether solicited or not, upon a faithful and

ardent minister in a populous locality. For several years, the care of all the neighbouring churches may be said, "daily to have come upon" Mr Henry, especially such as he could visit beween the Sabbaths. The engagements to which he was thus frequently called, included a circuit of about thirty miles, and embraced frequent public addresses, ordinations, and funeral sermons. And yet Mr Henry was by no means one of those restless spirits who delight in publicity and bustle. He was naturally fond of retirement, and courted privacy and quiet as far as it was possible for him to do so in consistency with his obligations to God and his neighbour. Hence the delight he felt in those calm and unostentatious hours of private study and meditation, which produced his ever-memorable commentary on the Scriptures; and the gratitude he was known to express that that part of his work, at least, was "cut out in retirement, and not in noise and hurry." It is marvellous, how, with so much work upon his hands, he contrived to dedicate such a large proportion of his time to the devotions of the closet, and the preparations of the study. His sermons were elaborated with more than ordinary care, and often written out at full length; his expositions were also the fruit of very considerable research and mental

exertion.

In the year 1699, Mr Henry was thought of as a suitable person to succeed Dr Bates, then lately deceased at Hackney. To the first and the second invitation sent him from the church assembling at that place, he gave a decided negative, believing that Chester presented to him a sphere of greater usefulness, and therefore, that it was his duty to remain there. Ten years after this, however, when the congregation at Hackney, by the death of Mr Billio, were again left destitute, and had renewed their application to Mr Henry, he saw it his duty to comply, and, accordingly, he removed from Chester to London in May, 1712. One motive which greatly influenced Mr Henry in at last acceding to the wishes of the church at Hackney, might be traced to the wish which he must have felt to superintend the publication of his great work, the Commentary, then in the press,—a duty which it was hardly possible for him to perform with any efficiency while resident in Chester.

Our author's pastoral engagements at Hackney commenced on the 18th of May, 1712. In the new sphere of labour which now lay around him, he found ample opportunity for constant and laborious exertion; and, though his strength was somewhat impaired, and disease began to make its inroads upon his frame, he entered upon his new duties with undiminished alacrity and zeal. His biographer has remarked of him, that sometimes while at Hackney he preached his early lecture at Little-St-Helen's; then returned to Hackney to fulfil his regular morning and afternoon services, consisting, as at Chester, of two expositions and two sermons; then he has gone to Wapping to preach at Mr Lloyd's meeting house, or to Shakspeare's Walk charity school, or sometimes to the evening lecture at Redriff; and finally, having returned home, has gone through all the parts of family worship without giving evidence of either mental or bodily fatigue.

By such labours Mr Henry's health soon became visibly impaired. His friends would have persuaded him to suspend, or at least abate, some portion of his incessant circle of engagements; but he would not

listen to such a proposal. In the month of May, 1714, he paid a visit to his old friends in Cheshire, and was returning home in the month of June, when he was suddenly taken ill at Nantwich. The struggle was short. The next day, after his first illness, he was seized with apoplexy. He lay speechless three hours, and then fell asleep.' His remains were buried in Trinity church, Chester.

Mr Henry was, in private life, an amiable and highly domestic man. Though necessarily much and frequently from home, he still preferred the comforts of his own household to those of any other. Recording a journey to a distance to preach, he says, "In the evening I came to Chester late, and through much rain, but it was home." As a husband, his whole deportment was marked by prudence, fidelity, and affection; as a parent, his conduct was marked by kindness, firmness, and the most earnest anxiety for the spiritual interests of his children. Into the circle of his friends he admitted none who did not profess themselves the friends of his Divine Master. Yet he knew how to honour all men, as well as to love "the brotherhood." A gentleman by birth, education, and habits, he conducted himself to all with courtesy. "The very churchmen," says the famous John Dunton," the very churchmen love him; and even malice is angry she can find no cause to be angry with him."

Of his diligence and improvement of time we have already spoken. He was commonly in his study at five, and sometimes at four o'clock; there he remained till seven or eight. After family worship, and some slight refreshment, he returned to his study till noon; and oftentimes again after dinner till four in the afternoon. He then visited the sick, or his friends, and attended to any piece of business which he might have to manage. His rule, without defining proportions either of time or exertion, was the following:-" Be diligent in your particular callings. Bestow the bulk of your time upon them. Understand your employment; and mind it with all seriousness."

Mr Henry had a respectable acquaintance with the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages. His reading in early life had been extensive, and he was particularly well-acquainted with the writings of the puritan and nonconformist divines, amongst whom his favourite author seems to have been Baxter. He commenced author in the year 1689, or rather 1690, with an anonymous duodecimo of 34 pages, entitled, 'A Brief Inquiry into the true nature of Schism.' It called forth an answer of rather an illiberal character from a writer who styled himself 'A Citizen of Chester.' Mr Henry left the task of reply to his friend Mr Tong. His great work, the Exposition of the Old and New Testament, was commenced in November, 1704. Mr Henry lived to finish only the Acts of the Apostles. The rest was completed by various ministers, whose names are announced in some of the editions.

Robert South, D.D.

BORN A. D. 1633.-DIED A. D. 1716.

ROBERT SOUTH, D. D., was an eminent divine of the 17th century. He was the son of a London merchant, and was born at Hackney in

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