Flintshire and Shropshire, October 18, 1662. His father, the Rev. Philip Henry, had shortly before this been ejected from the living of Worthenbury. It is said that Matthew could read the Bible distinctly when three years old, and soon afterwards his father obtained for him a tutor, the Rev. William Turner, whose folio volume of Remarkable Providences was a great favourite with the pious readers of last century. Under this good man's care the young scholar soon became a proficient in Latin and Greek, and showed such an aptitude for learning, and such seriousness and solidity of character, that, had the times been favourable, he would have been allowed at once to prepare for the ministry. But as there was little prospect of liberty for nonconformists, he made up his mind to provide a second string for the bow by studying law, and spent at Gray's inn the years 1685-86. However, just at this period more lenient measures were adopted by the court, and, taking advantage of the indulgence, Matthew Henry resumed the cherished purpose of his youth, and was ordained a presbyterian minister at London in 1687 Immediately thereafter he was invited to Chester, where for five-and-twenty years he plied his assiduous and very successful ministry. The times were tranquil, and his own turn of mind was the reverse of polemical. Wearied with the ecclesiastical strifes and doctrinal debates of half a century, the more devout both of ministers and hearers inclined towards practical preaching , and with a calm, orderly structure of mind, Mr. Henry's preaching was more calculated to instruct and to edify, than to excite and arouse. But the aptitude which he possessed he improved to the utmost; and whilst he soon built up a congregation, numbering three hundred and fifty communicants, and consisting of the most exemplary and sober-minded citizens, his week evening lecture attracted numerous hearers belonging to the Church of England. For twenty successive years that lecture was limited to a single series. On a Thursday evening in October, 1692, he took for his text Genesis iii. 9, "Adam, where art thou?" and he proceeded with these "scriptural questions" until May, 1712, when the course concluded with Rev. xviii. 18, "What city is like unto this great city?" It must have been a happy pastorate. His father continued within an easy distance at Broadoak, for the first nine years after his son's settlement at Chester; and in this city, or quite near it, were the houses of his four married sisters. Although, after a union of only eighteen months, he lost his first wife, his subsequent marriage to Mary Warburton of Grange shed over the rest of his days the serene delights of an affectionate and well-ordered home. He enjoyed the love of his people and the respect of his fellow-citizens; and in his sacred calling he had sufficient occupation for all his powers, with the cheering consciousness that his work was successful. In 1696 he lost his father, and in the following year the son published that biography which still retains its place amongst the most delightful pictures of personal and domestic piety which these later times have yielded. This was followed by a few small publications from time to time, of which the most valuable were—"A discourse concerning Meekness," 1698; "The Communicant's Companion," 1704; "Directions for Daily Communion with God," 1712; and "The Pleasantness of a Religious Life," 1714. But the great work of Matthew Henry was his "Exposition of the Old and New Testament." Before that time there existed commentaries on scripture of various merit, the chief favourites being the Annotations of Matthew Poole, and those of certain divines of the Westminster Assembly. In the previous century, the admirable notes of Erasmus on the New Testament were widely diffused in the fine old English translation, and by royal edict had been affixed to the reading-desk in many a parish church. But there was still great need for an exposition more lively than that of Poole and the Assembly divines, and more warmly evangelical than the paraphrase of Erasmus, whilst equally adapted for every-day readers. The "Exposition" was a labour of love and went prosperously forward. A year and nine months brought him to the close of his first volume. Equably and earnestly the work advanced, until, on the 17th of April, 1714, he announces the completion of the Acts, and therewith the readiness for the press of the fifth folio volume. Two months afterwards death arrested his industrious pen, and for the Epistles and Revelations we are indebted to Dr. John Evans, Henry's biographer William Tong, and others, who have done their best to complete the original plan.
Taken all in all, no Englishman has ever entered on that great enterprise, a systematic exposition of the word of God, with advantages equal to Matthew Henry. Not but that some have been superior linguists, and others may have been better acquainted with the labours of their learned predecessors; but in the great qualification of intimate and affectionate insight into the sacred text, and in the other great qualification of making its meaning arresting and memorable, Matthew Henry excelleth them all. All his stores of reading arranged themselves around this centre; every fact in history, every poetic fable, every classical quotation hooked on to its sacred parallel; and, that which was of more importance still, God's word dwelt in him so richly as to be its own interpreter. And whilst, in answer to the author's prayer that it might contain "nothing flat or foolish, frivolous or foreign," all is "clear, and pertinent, and affecting," the reader feels that he is in the true Interpreter's House." where nothing is purposely misrepresented, and where, as under a solar microscope, many a hidden wonder is brought out in divine and self-commending beauty.
In 1712 Mr. Henry accepted an invitation to become pastor of the congregation at Hackney, which was first formed under the ministry of Dr. Bates. In this new sphere he commenced his labours on the 18th of May, "beginning the world anew," and expounding in the morning the first chapter of Genesis, in the afternoon the first chapter of Matthew. His affections, however, still clung to Chester, and it was returning from this endeared scene of his best and happiest years that, at Nantwich, he was seized with apoplexy, and died there June 22, 1714. His remains were deposited in Trinity church, Chester.—J. H.
HENRY, Patrick, an American politician and orator, was born in Hanover county, Virginia, the son of a planter, on the 29th of May, 1736. As a boy he gave few indications of future eminence, neglecting his books and spending his time chiefly in field sports. He tried storekeeping and farming with equal want of success, and the only trait worth recording of his early, aimless, and "loafing" life is, that he thoroughly studied and enjoyed Livy—in an English translation. Going to the bar, he made an unexpected hit by his success in what was called the "parsons' cause," 1st December, 1763, which really turned upon the question whether the home government could render of no effect an act of the Virginian legislature. The language used by him was new in the colonies, and produced the utmost excitement in the audience; the jury giving what was virtually a verdict for Henry's clients. The young and obscure lawyer became now not only a popular politician, but the leading member of the Virginian bar. In 1765 he was elected a member of the Virginian legislature; his voice was the loudest to assert colonial rights, and to stimulate Virginia to arm and fight for independence. After the declaration of independence he was elected governor of the state of Virginia, and commander in-chief of its forces. He was a member of the state convention of Virginia, which was assembled to consider the constitution proposed for the states, and in its discussions he was the organ of the most advanced democratic views. He was offered by Washington and Adams various high official posts, all of which he declined. He died in 1799.—F. E.
HENRY, Robert, D.D., a well-known historian, was born at St. Ninians in Stirlingshire in 1718. He first went to the village school, then to Stirling grammar-school, and afterwards to Edinburgh university. His first appointment was to the grammar-school at Annan. In 1746 he was licensed to preach, and in 1748 became minister at Carlisle. In 1760 he became pastor at Berwick, and in 1768 minister of the New Greyfriars church in Edinburgh, which he exchanged for the Old church in 1776. In 1770 the university of Edinburgh made him D.D., and in 1774 he was moderator of the general assembly. He left his books to the magistrates of Linlithgow, to found a public library there. He died November 24, 1790. In 1781 his literary attainments procured for him a pension of £100 per annum from the crown. As an author his reputation rests upon a single work, and one which he did not live to finish, the "History of Great Britain written on a new Plan." The idea of writing a history which should exhibit the growth of the nation, its inner life as well as its political one, appears to have been first conceived by Dr. Henry during his residence at Berwick. The plan was an original one, and it required no common courage and resources to carry it into execution. Three years after reaching Edinburgh, or in 1771, Dr. Henry published the first volume of his history in quarto. In 1774 he published a second; in 1777 the third; in 1781 the fourth; and the fifth in 1785. In these volumes he brought down the history to the commence-
