MATTHEW

See also:

• HENRY
• HENRY (1129-1195)
• HENRY (Fr. Henri; Span. Enrique; Ger. Heinrich; Mid. H. Ger. Heinrich and Heimrich; O.H.G. Haimi- or Heimirih, i.e. " prince, or chief of the house," from O.H.G. heim, the Eng. home, and rih, Goth. reiks; compare Lat. rex " king "—" rich," therefore " mig
• HENRY (c. 1108-1139)
• HENRY (c. 1174–1216)
• HENRY, EDWARD LAMSON (1841– )
• HENRY, JAMES (1798-1876)
• HENRY, JOSEPH (1797-1878)
• MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714)
• HENRY, PATRICK (1736–1799)
• HENRY, PRINCE OF BATTENBERG (1858-1896)
• HENRY, ROBERT (1718-1790)
• HENRY, VICTOR (1850– )
• HENRY, WILLIAM (1795-1836)

HENRY (1662-1714)  , English nonconformist divine, was born at Broad Oak, a farm-house on the confines of Flintshire and Shropshire, on the 18th of October 1662 . He was the son of Philip Henry, who had, two months earlier, been ejected by the Act of Uniformity . Unlike most of his fellow-sufferers, Philip Henry possessed some private means, and was thus enabled to give a good education to his son, who went first to a school at Islington, and then to Gray's Inn . He soon relinquished his legal studies for theology, and in 1687 became minister of a Presbyterian congregation at Chester, removing in 1712 to Mare Street, Hackney . Two years later (22nd of June 1714), he died suddenly of apoplexy at Nantwich while on a journey from Chester to London . Henry's well-known Exposition of the Old and New Testaments (1708–1710) is a commentary of a practical and devotional rather than of a critical kind, covering the whole of the Old Testament, and the Gospels and Acts in the New . Here it was broken off by the author's death, but the work was finished by a number of ministers, and edited by G . Burder and John Hughes in 1811 . Of no value as criticism, its unfailing good sense, its discriminating thought, its high moral tone, its simple piety and its singular felicity of practical application, combine with the well-sustained flow of its racy English style to secure for it the foremost place among works of its class . His Miscellaneous Writings, including a Life of Mr Philip Henry, The Communicant's Companion, Directions for Daily Communion with God, A Method for Prayer, A Scriptural Catechism, and numerous sermons, were edited in 1809 and in 1830 . See biographies by W . Tong (1816), C .

Chapman (1859), J . B . Williams (1828, new ed . 1865); and M . H . Lee's Diaries and Letters of Philip Henry (1883) .