and preached on Psalm, lxvi. 18; If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me; whence his doctrine was,That iniquity, regarded in the heart, will certainly spoil the success of prayer. When he was in the midst of his sermon, closely applying this truth, Sir T. V.* of Hodnet, and Mr. M.+ of Ightfield, two justices of the peace for Shropshire, with several others of their retinue, came suddenly upon them; disturbed them, set guards upon the house door, and came in themselves, severely rallied all they knew, reflected upon the late Honourable House of Commons, and the vote they passed concerning the present unseasonableness of putting the laws in execution against Protestant Dissenters, as if, in so voting, they had acted beyond their sphere, as they did who took away the life of King Charles the First. They diverted themselves with very abusive and unbecoming talk; swearing, and cursing, and reviling bitterly. Being told the occasion of the meeting was to seek to turn away the anger of God from us in the present drought, it was answered;

Such meetings as these were the cause of God's anger. While they were thus entertaining themselves, their clerks took the names of those that were present, in all, about one hundred and fifty, and so dismissed them for the present. Mr. Henry hath noted, in the account he kept of this event, that the justices came to this good work from the ale-house upon Prees Heath, about two miles off; to which, and the bowling-green adjoining, they, with other justices, gentlemen, and clergymen of the neighbourhood, had long before obliged themselves to come every Tuesday, during the summer time, under the penalty of twelve-pence a time if they were absent; and there to spend the day in drinking and bowling; which is thought to be as direct a violation of the law of the land; viz. the Statute of 33d Henry VIII. Cap. 9, "for debarring unlawful games," which was never yet repealed, as the meeting was of the Statute of 22d Car. II.; and, as much more to the dishonour of God, and the scandal of the christian profession, as cursing, and swearing, and drunkenness, are worse than praying, and singing psalms, and hearing the word of God. It is supposed the justices knew of the meeting before, and might have prevented it by the least intimation; but they were willing to take the opportunity of making sport to themselves, and trouble to their neighbours. After the feat done, they returned back to the ale-house, and made themselves and their companions merry with calling over the names they had taken, making their reflections as they saw cause; and recounting the particulars of the exploit. There was one of the company, whose wife happened to be present at the meeting, and her name taken among the rest; with which upbraiding him, he answered, that she had been better employed than he

Sir Thomas Vernon. Orig. MS. P. Henry.

+ Charles Mainwaring, Esq. P. Henry. Orig. MS. See Baxter's Eng. Noncon, p. 183, 4to. 1690.

was, and if Mr. Henry might be admitted to preach in a church, he would go a great many miles to hear him. For which words he was forthwith expelled their company, and never more to show his face again at that bowling-green; to which he replied,—If they had so ordered long ago, it had been a great deal the better for him and his family. Two days after they met again at Hodnet, where, upon the oath of two witnesses, who, as was supposed, were sent on purpose to inform, they signed and sealed two records of conviction. By one record, they convicted the master of the house, and fined him £20, and £5 more as constable of the town that year; and, with him, all the persons present, whose names they had taken, and fined them 5s. a piece, and issued out warrants accordingly. By another record, they convicted the two ministers, Mr. Bury and Mr. Henry. The Act makes it only punishable to preach, or teach, in any such conventicle; and yet they fined Mr. Bury £20, though he only prayed, and did not speak one word in the way either of preaching or teaching, not so much as,-"Let us pray;" however, they said, "Praying was teaching;"* and, right or wrong, he must be fined; though his great piety, peaceableness, and usefulness, besides his deep poverty, one would think, might have pleaded for him, against so palpable a piece of injustice. They took £7 off from him, and laid it upon others, as they saw cause; and, for the remaining £13, he being utterly unable to pay it, they took from him, by distress, the bed which he lay upon, with blanket and rug; also, another feather bed, nineteen pair of sheets, most of them new; of which he could not prevail to have so much as one pair returned for him to lie in; also, books, to the value of £5, besides brass and pewter. And, though he was at this time perfectly innocent of that heinous crime of preaching and teaching, with which he was charged, (for so the record runs again and again, concerning Mr. Henry and Mr. Bury, Quod ad tunc et ibidem precaverunt, predicaverunt et docuerunt,) yet he had no way to right himself, but by appealing to the justices themselves in quarter sessions, who would be sure to affirm their own decree, as the justices in Montgomeryshire had done not long before in a like case, especially when it was to recover to themselves treble costs. So the good man sat down with his loss, and took joyfully the spoiling of his goods; knowing in himself, that he had, in heaven, a better, and a more enduring substance.

But Mr. Henry being the greatest criminal,† and having done the

* In the case of Robert Collins, A. M. it was contended, that "presbyterian preaching and praying was all one; for they, in their prayers, would undertake to teach Almighty God." The counsel for the prosecutor prayed the bench to call for a dictionary, and said, "There they would find, that prædicare and orare were the same." See the Noncon. Mem. v. 2, p. 75, ut supra. Also, v. 3, p. 151.

+ See an Account of the Rev. John Baily. Mather's History of New England, book iii. p. 233; and Middleton's Biog Evang. v. 4, p. 102. oct. 1786.

peace

most mischief, must needs be animadverted upon accordingly; and, therefore, he was fined £40; the pretence of which was this. In the year 1679, October 15, Mr. Kynaston, of Oatly, a justice of in Shropshire, meeting him and some others coming, as he supposed, from a conventicle, he was pleased to record their conviction, upon the notorious evidence and circumstances of the fact. The record was filed at Salop the next sessions after, but no notice was ever sent of it, either to Mr. Henry, or the justices of Flintshire; nor any prosecution upon it, against any of the parties charged; (the reason of which, Mr. Henry, in a narrative* he wrote of this affair, supposeth to be not only the then favourable posture of public affairs towards dissenters, but also the particular prudence and lenity of Mr. Kynaston;) so that, having never smarted for this, he could not be supposed to be deterred from the like offence; nor, if he were wronged in that first conviction, had he ever any opportunity of making his appeal. However, the justices being resolved he should have summum jus, thought that first record sufficient to give denomination to a second offence, and so he came to be fined double. This conviction, according to the direction of the Act, they certified to the next adjoining justices of Flintshire, who had all along carried themselves with great temper and moderation towards Mr. Henry, and had never given him any disturbance; though, if they had been so minded, they had not wanted opportunities; but they were now necessitated to execute the sentences of the Shropshire justices. It was much pressed upon to pay the fine, which might prevent his own loss and the justices' trouble. But he was not willing to do it, partly, because he would give no encouragement to such prosecutions, nor voluntarily reward the informers for that which he thought they should rather be punished for; and partly because he thought himself wronged in the doubling of the fine. Whereupon his goods were distrained upon, and carried away; in the doing of which many passages occurred which might be worth the noting, but, that the repetition of them would perhaps grate, and give offence to some. Let it therefore suffice, waving the circumstances, to remember only that their warrant, not giving them authority to break open doors, nor their watchfulness getting them an opportunity to enter the house, they carried away about thirty-three cart load of goods without doors, corn cut upon the ground, hay, coals, &c. This made a great

him

* This MS. is entitled, "An Account of the Proceedings against the Rev. Philip Henry, and others, for Preaching and Praying in the House of Mr. Thomas Millington, of Weston, in the Parish of Hodnet, in the County of Salop, in the Reign of Charles II., in the Year 1681." It is in the hand-writing of Mr. Henry, and possessed by Mr. Witton.

+ This refusal is thought, and termed contempt, stubbornness, and what not. But let God and the world judge. It is supposed the easier they come by the fines, the likelier they will be to come again. Besides, as yet, the general practice of good people throughout the nation is to refuse payment, and to suffer distress, though it be found, for the most part, to inflame the reckoning. P. Henry. Orig. MS.

noise in the country, and raised the indignation of many against the decrees which prescribed this grievousness; while Mr. Henry bore it with his usual evenness and serenity of mind, not at all moved or disturbed by it. He did not boast of his sufferings, or make any great matter of them; but would often say,-Alas, this is nothing to what others suffer, nor to what we ourselves may suffer before we die! And yet he rejoiced, and blessed God that it was not for debt, or for evil-doing, that his goods were carried away.-And, saith he, while it is for well-doing that we suffer, they cannot harm us. Thus he writes in his Diary upon it;-How oft have we said that changes are at the door; but, blessed be God, there is no sting in this! He frequently expressed the assurance he had, that, whatever damage he sustained,-God is able to make it up again. And, as he used to say,-Though we may be losers for Christ, yet we shall not be losers by him in the end. He had often said, that his preaching was likely to do the most good, when it was sealed to by suffering; and, if this be the time, saith he, welcome the will of God; even this also shall turn to the furtherance of the gospel of Christ. Bene agere et male pati vere christianum est.*

Soon after this, was the assizes for Flintshire, held at Mold, where Sir George Jeffries,† afterwards Lord Chancellor, then Chief Justice of Chester, sat Judge. He did not, in private conversation, seem to applaud what was done in this matter, so as was expected; whether out of a private pique against some that had been active in it, or for what other reason is not known; but it was said, he pleasantly asked some of the gentlemen, by what new law they pressed carts, as they passed upon their occasions along the road, to carry away goods distrained for a conventicle? It was also said, that he spoke with some respect of Mr. Henry; saying, he knew him, and his character, well, and that he was a great friend of his mother's, (Mrs. Jeffries of Acton, near Wrexham, a very pious, good woman,) and that, sometimes at his mother's request, Mr. Henry had examined him in his learning, when he was a school-boy, and had commended his proficiency. And it was much wondered at by many, that, of all the times Sir George Jeffries went that circuit, though it is well enough known what was his temper, and what the temper of that time, yet he never sought any occasion against Mr. Henry, nor took the occasions that were offered, nor countenanced any trouble intended him, though he was the only nonconformist in Flintshire. One passage I remember, not improper to be mentioned; there had been an agreement among some ministers, (I think it began in the West of England, where Mr. Allen was,) to spend some time, either in secret, or in

Appendix, No. XVI. See 1 Pet. ii. 20.

+ See Granger's Biog. Hist. v. 3, p. 368, and the Life of Lord North, 4to. 1742, p. 209, &c.

The Rev. Joseph Alleine. Nat. 1633, ob. Nov. 1688. See his Life and Letters, duod. 1671; lately reprinted.

their families, or both, between six and eight o'clock every Monday morning, in prayer for the church of God, and for the land and nation, more fully and particularly than at other times, and to make that their special errand at the throne of grace; and to engage as many of their praying friends, as ever they could, to the observance of it. This had been communicated to Mr. Henry, by some of his friends at London, and he punctually observed it in his own practice, I believe, for many years. He also mentioned it to some of his acquaintance, who did in like manner observe it. It happened that one in Denbighshire, to whom he had communicated it, was so well pleased with it, that he wrote a letter of it to a friend of his at a distance; which letter happened to fall into hands that perverted it, and made information upon it, against the writer and receiver of the letter, who were bound over to the Assizes, and great suspicions Sir George Jeffries had, that it was a branch of the presbyterian plot,† and rallied the parties accused severely.

It appeared, either by the letter, or by the confession of the parties, that they received the project from Mr. Henry, which, it was greatly feared, would bring him into trouble; but Sir George, to the admiration of many, let it fall, ‡ and never inquired further into it. It seems, there are some men, whose ways so please the Lord, that he makes even their enemies to be at peace with them ; and there is nothing lost by trusting in God.

Mr. Henry, at the next assizes after he was distrained upon, was presented by one of the high constables,-1. For keeping a conventicle at his house; and, 2. For saying,-That the law for suppressing conventicles ought not to be obeyed, and that there was never a tittle of the word of God in it. As to this latter presentment, it was altogether false. He had, indeed, in discourse with the high constable, when he insisted so much upon the law, which required him to be so rigorous in the prosecution, objected, -That all human laws were not to be obeyed, merely because they were laws. But, as to any such reflections upon the law he suffered by, he was far from it, and had prudence enough to keep silence at that time; for it was an evil time when so many were made offenders for a word. But these presentments met with so little countenance from Judge Jeffries, that Mr. Henry only entered his

Mr. Ambrose Lewis. MS. See ante, p. 41.

+ See Baxter. Reliq. part iii. p. 186, &c. Various curious pamphlets were originated by the accusation; particularly the horrid sin of man-catching, the Second Part, 4to. 1681 and "No Protestant Plot, in Three Parts," 4to. 1681, 1682.

At the same time, he (the judge) caused Mr. Ambrose Lewis, his old schoolmaster at Wrexham, in Denbighshire, a worthy good man, Mr. Henry's great friend, to be presented, and rallied against him particularly, with great keenness in his charge to the grand jury, for keeping conventicles, as he called it, in the school; "by which means," saith he, "your children get the twang of fanaticism in their noses when they are young, and they will never leave it." Life. Orig. MS. ut supra.