CHAPTER VI.

His Liberty by the Indulgence in the Year 1672, and thenceforward to the Year 1681.

NOTWITHSTANDING the severe act against conventicles in the year 1670, yet the nonconformists in London ventured to set up meetings in 1671, and were connived at ;* but in the country there was little liberty taken till the King's declaration of March 15, 1671-2, gave countenance and encouragement to it. What were the secret springs which produced that declaration,† time discovered; however, it was to the poor dissenters as life from the dead, and gave them some reviving in their bondage; God graciously ordering it so, that the spirit he had made might not fail before him. But so precarious a liberty was it, that it should never be said, those people were hard to be pleased, who were so well pleased with that, and thanked God, who put such a thing into the King's heart. The tenor of that declaration was this,-In consideration of the inefficacy of rigour, tried for divers years, and to invite strangers into the kingdom, ratifying the Establishment in the Church of England, it suspends penal laws against all nonconformists and recusants, promiseth to license separate places for meetings, limiting papists only to private houses.

On this Mr. Henry writes; "It is a thing diversely resented, as men's interests lead them; the conformists displeased, the presbyterians glad, the independents very glad, the papists triumph. The danger is, saith he, lest the allowing of separate places help to overthrow our parish-order, which God hath owned, and to beget divisions and animosities among us, which no honest heart but would rather should be healed. We are put hereby, saith he, into a trilemma, either to turn independents in practice, or to strike in with

1671. Nov. 9. Five London ministers with the King: Dr. Annesley, Mr. Watson, Mr. Whitaker, and the two Vincents; to whom he said,-He was sensible of their straits, and would endeavour their enlargements. Amen. He said,-As he would not willingly be persecuted himself for his own religion, so neither did he like to persecute others for their's. P. Henry. Diary. Orig. MS.

+ See it at length in Neal's Hist. v. 4, p. 461, &c. ut supra.

In two things the independents are to be commended,--they keep up discipline among them; they love, and correspond one with another. P. Henry. Diary. Orig. MS.

the conformists, or to sit down in former silence and sufferings, (and silence he accounted one of the greatest sufferings,) till the Lord shall open a more effectual door. That which, he saith, he then heartily wished for, was,-That those who were in place, would admit the sober nonconformists to preach sometimes occasionally in their pulpits; by which means he thought prejudices would in time wear off on both sides, and they might mutually strengthen each other's hands against the common enemy,-the papists; who he foresaw would fish best in troubled waters." This he would choose much rather than to keep a separate meeting. But it could not be had. No, not so much as leave to preach in Whitewell-chapel when it was vacant, as it often was, though it were three long miles from the parish church. He found that some people, the more they are courted, the more coy they are; however, the overtures he made to this purpose, and the slow steps ho took towards the setting up of a distinct congregation, yielded him satisfaction afterwards in the reflection, when he could say,-we would have been united, and they would not.

It was several weeks after the declaration came out, that he received a license to preach, as Paul did, † in his own house, and elsewhere, no man forbidding him. This was procured for him by some of his friends in London, without his privity, and came to him altogether unexpected.

[On the King's declaration, his papers contain the following observations:

All or most of the conformists have said they could not deny us ministers, but not ministers of the Church of England, without episcopal ordination.

By a minister of the Church of England can be meant no other than a minister of Christ authorized to preach in the Church of England.

All the power to be owned in bishops, is derived to them from the King; and, in those things wherein the King hath power in church matters, in those things we may obey the bishops, as his delegates and substitutes.

In King James's time, when four Scotch presbyters were to be consecrated bishops at Lambeth, it was moved that they might first be ordained presbyters again; but it was overruled, being without need.

In our case, the King immediately, without bishops, which is the better, gives us liberty, being already ministers of Christ, to preach in his dominions where he appoints.

In the debates on the Bill for uniting His Majesty's Protestant Subjects, Dec. 21, 1680, it was remarked, by a Member of the House of Commons, that the Oxford Act, and other laws against Dissenters, were much promoted by Sir Thomas Clifford, Sir Solomon Swale, and Sir Roger Strickland, who since all appeared to be Papists. Coll. of the Parliamentary Debates, from 1668, v. 1, p. 484, oct. 1741. + See Acts, xxi. 40.

See Hooker's Eccl. Pol. ut supra. B. VII. pp. 11, 12, &c.

K

The law calls the King patron-general of England. His appointing me to preach, supposes I must have hearers, and those, of necessity, out of some parish or other. What we do is to serve the present necessity, and not of choice.

There are many among us debarred by imposition from communicating with freedom in publick in the Lord's Supper; the King takes pity upon them, authorizes one or another to give it in a way wherein they are satisfied. And why not?*]

The use he made of it was, that at his own house, what he did before to his own family, and in private, the doors being shut for fear, he now did more publickly; threw his doors open, and welcomed his neighbours to him, to partake of his spiritual things. Only one sermon in the evening of the Lord's day, when there was preaching at Whitewell-chapel, where he still continued his attendance with his family and friends as usual; but when there was not, he spent the whole day, at publick time, in the services of the day, exposition of the scriptures read, and preaching, with prayer and praise. This he did gratis, receiving nothing for his labours, either at home or abroad, but the satisfaction of doing good to souls, which was his meat and drink, with the trouble and charge of giving entertainment of many of his friends, which he did with much cheerfulness; and he would say, he sometimes thought that the bread did even multiply in the breaking; and he found that God did abundantly bless his provision with that blessing, which, as he used to say, will make a little to go a great way. He was wont to observe, for the encouragement of such as had meetings in their houses, which sometimes drew upon them inconveniences,-That the ark is a guest, that always pays well for its entertainment. And he noted, that when Christ had borrowed Peter's boat to preach a sermon out of it, he presently repaid him for the loan, with a great draught of fishes, Luke, v. 3, 4.

Many thoughts of heart he had concerning this use he made of the liberty, not knowing what would be in the end hereof; but after serious consideration, and many prayers, he saw his way very plain before him, and addressed himself with all diligence to the improvement of this gale of opportunity.+ Some had dismal apprehensions of the issue of it; and that there would be an after-reckoning. But, saith he, let us mind our duty, and let God alone to order events, which are his work, not our's.

It was a word upon the wheels, which he preached at that time for his own encouragement, and the encouragement of his friends, from that Scripture, Ecclesiastes, xi. 4, He that observes the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.

* P. Henry. Orig. MS.

+ Opportunity is the flower and cream of time. All opportunity is time, but all time is not opportunity. P. Henry. Orig. MS.

See the "Gale of Opportunity;" a Sermon, preached at Lidbury North, at the Funeral of the Worshipful Humphrey Walcot, of Walcot, Esq. June 8, 1650; by Thomas Froy sell, Minister of the Gospel at Clun, in Shropshire, dnod. 1658.

Those that are minded either to do good, or get good, must not be frighted with seeming difficulties and discouragements. Our work is to sow and reap, to do good and get good; and let us mind that, and let who will mind the winds and clouds. A lion in the way, a lion in the streets;* a very unlikely place, he would say, for lions to be in; and yet that serves the sluggard for an

excuse.

[In one of his diaries, in reference to this subject, he thus writes: I had occasion to discover another of the sins which do so easily beset me, and that is fearfulness. I am often afraid where no fear is. Dr. Hammond observes,-In evil times it fares best with them that are most careful about duty, and least about safety. "To be afraid where no fear is, is sometimes the sin of God's people, and oftentimes the punishment of wicked men." Proverbs, xxviii. 1. +

Thus diligently did he watch against evil, and excite himself to activity in his master's service.]

While this liberty lasted, he was in labours more abundant; many lectures he preached abroad in Shropshire, Cheshire, and Denbighshire, laying out himself exceedingly for the good of souls, spending and being spent in the work of the Lord. And of that neighbourhood and of that time it was said, that this and that man was born again, then and there; and many there were who asked the way to Sion, with their face thitherwards, and were (not proselyted to a party, but) savingly brought home to Jesus Christ. I mean this; such as had been vain and worldly, and careless, and mindless of God and another world, became sober, and serious, and concerned about their souls, and a future state. This was the conversion of souls, aimed at, and laboured after, and through grace, not altogether in vain.

Whatever lectures were set up in the country round, it was still desired that Mr. Henry would begin them, (which was thought no small encouragement to those who were to carry them on,) and very happy he was, both in the choice and management of his subjects at such opportunities, seeking to find out acceptable words. Take one specimen of his address, when he began a lecture with a

See the Outlines of a Sermon by Mr. P. Henry on this passage, in the Evan. Mag. v. xxii. p. 512.

↑ Orig. MS.

+ Particularly Wrexham. In 1672 he has recorded a circumstance, which, while locally interesting, is illustrative of his own character, and fraught with instruction: -I said to Mrs. Figes, in my own house, speaking of the offence taken at the meeting-place in Wrexham being a barn, that,-wheat in a barn is better than chaff in a church. Her brother, Stephen Morhal, hearing it, told some, who told others, and it reached Dr. Fowler, who, a sabbath or two after, took notice of it in the pulpit, and said, "There are some who, in the abundance of their humility, have said, lately, that there is nothing but chaff in churches; whereas chaff is rather to be looked for in barns," or, to that purpose. Whereby, I see how words, innocently spoken, may be perverted; but I, as a deaf man, heard not; for, I said, Lord, thou hearest. P. Henry. Diary. Orig. MS.

sermon on Hebrews, xii. 15. "I assure you, saith he, and God is my witness, I am not come to preach, either sedition against the peace of the state, or schism against the peace of the church, by persuading you to this or that opinion or party; but as a minister of Christ, that hath received mercy from the Lord, to desire to be faithful, my errand is to exhort you to all possible seriousness in the great business of your eternal salvation, according to my text, which if the Lord will make as profitable to you, as it is material and of weight in itself, neither you nor I shall have cause to repent our coming hither, and our being here to day; looking diligently, lest any of you fail of the grace of God. If it were the last sermon I were to preach, I did not know how to take my aim better to do you good.*

In doing of this work, he often said, that he looked upon himself but as an assistant to the parish ministers, in promoting the common interests of Christ's kingdom, and the common salvation of precious souls, by the explication and application of those great truths, wherein we are all agreed. And he would compare the case to that in Hezekiah's time, when the Levites helped the priests to kill the sacrifice, which was something of an irregularity, but the exigence of affairs called for it; the priests being too few, and some of them not so careful as they should have been, to sanctify themselves; (see 2 Chronicles, xxix. 34:) and wherever he preached, he usually prayed for the parish minister, and for a blessing upon his ministry. He hath often said how well pleased he was, when, after he had preached a lecture at Oswestry, he went to visit the minister of the place, Mr. Edwards,† a worthy good man, and told him, he had been sowing a handful of seed among his people, and had this answer, That's well, the Lord prosper your seed and mine too, there is need enough of us both. And another worthy conformist that same privately to hear him, but was reprimanded for it by his superiors, told him afterwards with tears, that his heart was with him.

His heart was wonderfully enlarged in his work at this time, the fields were white upon the harvest; and he was busy, and God did remarkably own him, setting many seals to his ministry, which much confirmed him in what he did. He hath this observable passage in his Diary, about this time, which he recorded for his after benefit, and the example of it may be instructive.-Remember that if trouble should come hereafter, for what we do now in the use of present liberty, I neither shrink from it, nor sink under it; for I do therein approve myself to God, and to my own conscience, in truth and uprightness; and the Lord whom I serve, can and will certainly both bear me out, and bring me off with comfort in the end. I say, Remember, and forget it not, this 24th day of March, 1672-3.

* Appendix, No. XV.

Ejected from Christleton, in Cheshire. He afterwards conformed. See the Noncon. Mem. v. 1, p. 316, ut supra.