MATTHEW HENRY, whose name is in all the churches in connection with his well-known exposition of the Scriptures, was the son of the Rev. Philip Henry, a true servant of Jesus Christ. Matthew was born at Broad Oak, in the township of Iscoed, Flintshire, 18th October 1662, the year when so many of the faithful ministers of England were turned adrift. His elder brother died at the age of six, and Matthew was the only boy now in a family of five. Dr Drysdale has written of this favoured family:—”Their lives were closely and curiously bound up with one another from first to last. All the five of them were married within two years of each other. They all settled within easy distance of the parental roof, and in homes that reflected in every case, as it is pleasant to think, the gracious influences of their early training. Nor was it one of the least of the felicities of Matthew Henry’s lot, that the three youngest became, with their husbands, members and ornaments of his church in Chester; the eldest, also, to whom he seems to have felt specially drawn, being wife of the God-fearing and prosperous farmer of Wrenbury Wood, in an adjoining neighbourhood. Never in the life-long intercourse of this attached family circle was there known an instance of alienation or suspicion, neither an unkindly feeling nor a divided interest” (History of the Presbyterians in England, pp. 477, 478).
As a boy, Matthew Henry was not very robust, but as he grew up to manhood his constitution became more vigorous. In early life he showed a great passion for books and learning, and so close did his application become that his anxious mother had often to drive him away from his books to enjoy himself in the open air. When nine years of age he could write to his father, who was on a visit to London, a letter which contained the following sentence:—”Every day since you went, I have done my lesson, a side of Latin or Latin verses, with two verses in the Greek Testament.”
Matthew Henry was the child of many prayers. His parents, by a consistent and attractive example, as well as by firm yet gentle discipline, made piety to their children a delight. Until his eighteenth year, Matthew enjoyed the immediate supervision and help of his father in all his studies. After this the lad was entrusted to the Rev. Thomas Dolittle, who was one of the ejected of 1662, and who had opened an Academy at Islington in 1672, for training young divines, so as to perpetuate a Presbyterian ministry outside the pale of the National Church of England. When Matthew Henry entered the Academy in 1680, there were two students, but it was closed by the authorities a few months later. Matthew went back to Broad Oak, and in 1685 he is in London again, this time entering as a law student at Gray’s Inn, Holborn. While studying law, he carried on, also, his theological studies. In 1686, when home on holiday, he began to preach. He had been invited by his friend, George Illidge, to come over to Nantwich to conduct services for him in the evenings, and he did so, secretly, because of the law against the non-conformists. Matthew Henry was by training and conviction a Presbyterian Puritan. While advised by friends to accept ordination at the hands of a bishop, he could not see his way to do so. He, accordingly, applied to some of the well-known Presbyterian divines in London, and on 9th May 1687, he was solemnly ordained by laying-on of hands, with prayer and fasting, after all due probation and examination. At the age of 25 he was settled at Chester, where for twenty-five years out of the remaining twenty-seven of his life he was to carry on his useful ministerial labours. The congregation, to begin with, met in a private house, but on their numbers increasing, one of the congregation offered part of his large premises for their use.
Although a Presbyterian, Matthew Henry was quite willing to recognise the union of Presbyterians and Independents as agreed upon by the London ministers of these denominations in 1691. And in conducting the affairs of his congregation the whole responsibility of admitting to church privileges and membership rested in his hands, together with all the exercise of discipline which is contrary to the laws of Presbyterian polity.
His best known work is, of course, his Exposition. He was in his study by four or five o’clock in the morning, and often in the night watches, when kept from sleep through illness in the family, he would sit down “to do a little at the Exposition.” By September 1706, his notes on the Pentateuch were ready for the press. Every second year found another small folio ready for issue. The fourth volume completed the Old Testament, and the fifth, embracing the Gospels and Acts, was finished 17th April 1714. But this was his last, for in two months after this he had passed to his rest, and as his Latin epitaph suggests, “The mysteries contained in the Apostolic Epistles and Book of Revelation he went to gaze into more closely in heaven.” With the help of his preparations and jottings some ministerial brethren finished the work. Their names and respective parts are given in most editions—they were by name, Evans, Brown, Mayo, Bays, Rosewell, Harriss, Atkinson, Smith, Tong, Wright, Morrel, Hill, Reynolds, and Billingsley.
Spurgeon, in one of his lectures, says of this Exposition—”First among the mighty for general usefulness we are bound to mention the man whose name is a household word, Matthew Henry. He is most pious and pithy, sound and sensible, suggestive and sober, terse and trustworthy. . . . It is the poor man’s commentary, the old Christian’s companion, suitable to everybody, instructive to all.” He advises every minister to read Matthew Henry’s Exposition entirely and carefully through once at least.
Matthew Henry’s death came suddenly. He had promised to preach at Nantwich, where he had preached his first sermon, and on his way there his horse stumbled and he fell. He was able, however, to go through the service, but soon after was seized with apoplexy, and on Tuesday morning, 22nd June 1714, he passed to his everlasting rest.
Hath not thy heart said, “I will go and hear such a man, and get comfort?” And dost thou wonder that thou art weak and barren? Are ordinances God, that they should make you comfortable? They are but Christ’s servants; therefore, pass through all the crowd of ordinances, and ask to speak with Jesus, and virtue will come forth.—Sibbes.