had been no way prejudicial to his religious temper, or his ministerial qualifications. He now began to preach frequently as a candidate for the ministry, and he every where met with great acceptance.
About this time he went to visit his friend Mr. Illidge, at Nantwich, who had been in a remarkable manner brought to a sense of religion by the ministry of Mr. P. Henry, and who was very zealous in promoting the spiritual benefit of his neighbours. Mr. M. Henry spent several days with him, and preached in his house every evening to a considerable number of people, of whom several dissolute persons appeared to be deeply impressed with what they heard. One instance was very remarkable. The last evening, Mr. Henry preached on Job xxxvii. 22. With God is terrible majesty. Mr. Illidge, observing one man present whom he knew to be notoriously wicked, went the next morning to his house, to see what impression this alarming discourse had made upon him; when he found him in tears, under a deep conviction of sin, and the apprehension of misery. He found his wife also weeping with him, on account of her husband's distress. Mr. Illidge gave him the best instruction he could, and prayed with him. He also made known his case at Broad-Oak, that he might have further help from thence. There soon appeared a great change in him. He manifested a deep and abiding concern about his eternal state, and that of his wife, whom he taught to read. He set up prayer in his family, went often to the meeting at Broad-Oak, and at length was admitted to the Lord's supper. He sometimes spoke of the joy he felt at the remembrance of what God had done for him, and he maintained a hopeful profession of religion for some years. His wife also gave proof of her conversion, and died, to all appearance, a good christian. But he afterward relapsed into sin, to the great grief of his best friends, and the dishonour of religion. Whether he was effectually recovered does not appear.
Mr. Henry's great acceptance and success, at the commencement of his ministry, encouraged him to prosecute it with increasing ardour. Having occasion to take a journey to Chester, some good people there, who had heard of his fame, desired him to preach to them one evening in a private house; liberty for public worship not being yet granted. He readily consented, and preached three evenings successively at different houses in the city. The specimen which these good people had now received of his talents excited in them an earnest desire to have him settle with them; having about two years before, lost two aged and faithful ministers; and another in the city, Mr. Harvey, being far advanced in years, and preaching very privately. Being encouraged by a prevailing report that government was disposed to grant indulgence to dissenters, some of them went about the latter end of the year to Broad-Oak, to express to him their wishes for his continued services. He was then in the twenty fifth year of his age. On consulting with his father, and thinking there was the voice of Providence in the affair, he gave them some encouragement to hope for a compliance with their invitation, if liberty should be granted, provided Mr. Harvey consented, and they would wait till his return from London, where he was going to reside some months. They expressed their readiness to receive him upon his own terms, and in his own time.
On the 24th of January, 1687, he set out for London with the only son of his friend Mr. Hunt. At Coventry he heard that there had been a fire at Gray's-Inn, and at Holborn's-Court, where he had a chamber; upon which he wrote to his father, that he expected that the effects which he had left there were all lost; but on his arrival, he had the pleasure to find that, by the care of a chamber-fellow, most of them were saved. The first material news he heard in London, was that the king had granted indulgence to the dissenters, and had empowered certain gentlemen to give out licenses: the price of one for a single person was ten pounds; but if several joined, sixteen pounds; and eight persons might join in taking out one license.
Not many dissenters took out these licenses; but the disposition of the court being sufficiently understood, many began to meet publicly. About the end of February, Mr. Henry wrote to his father, that Mr. Faldo, a congregational minister, had preached, both morning and afternoon, to many hundred people, at Mr. Sclater's meeting in Moorfields. The people of Chester now reminded him of his engagements to them, the propriety of which he sometimes was ready to question, but he did not hesitate to fulfil them. The reverend and learned Mr. Woodcock came to him, and told him that he wished to engage him in a lecture which was set up chiefly for young persons; but thanking him for his respect, he modestly declined the offer, and said that his service was most wanted in the country, and might be most suitable there.
Mr. Henry now began to think seriously on the business of ordination, and consulted some ministers about it, particularly Mr. Tallents, of Salop, who had been some time in London, and Mr. James Owen, who was lately come up from Oswestry, both of whom had known him from his childhood, and they gave him all possible encouragement in this design. He viewed the ministerial office in so awful a light, that he set himself to consider the engagement into which a person enters in his ordination to it, with the greatest seriousness. He drew up, on this occasion, chiefly for his own use, a discourse on 1 Tim. iv. 15. Give thyself wholly to them; in which he stated the nature and several parts of the ministerial work, and what it is for a man to be wholly in them, (as it is in the Greek,) and then proceeded thoroughly to examine his own heart, with respect to his fitness for them. The paper is entitled, "Serious Self-examination before Ordination;" with this text prefixed: Search me, O God, and know my heart, &c. "It is worth while," says he, "for a man at such a time, deliberately to ask himself, and conscientiously to answer, the six following questions: 1. What am I? 2. What have I done? 3. From what principles do I act in this undertaking? 4. What are the ends I aim at in it? 5. What do I want? 6. What are my purposes and resolutions for the future?"—To each of these questions he gives a distinct answer, in several particulars, at a very considerable length, which fill more than four large folio pages. The whole discovers the utmost seriousness, humility, and conscientious regard to truth and duty.
About this time a respectable person, whom he had consulted about his ordination, intimated to him an apprehension that he might possibly obtain it from one of the bishops, without those oaths and declarations to which the dissenters objected. This probably took its rise from the moderation which the clergy were now disposed to show towards the nonconformists, in consequence of the king's declaration for liberty of conscience, which they knew originated in his intention to promote popery. Whether there was any solid ground for the apprehension or not, it appears that the intimation of his friend induced Mr. Henry to investigate the question with the utmost care and impartiality, "Whether it be advisable for one that hath devoted himself to the service of God in the work of the ministry, but is by no means satisfied with the terms of conformity, to choose ordination by episcopal hands (if it may be had without any oaths and subscriptions) rather than ordination by presbyters." Having fairly stated, in writ-
