A26780:388
An account of the life and death of Mr. Philip Henry, minister of the…
An account of the life and death of Mr. Philip Henry, minister of the gospel near Whitechurch in Shropshire, who died June 24, 1696, in the sixty fifth year of his ageAn account of the life and death of Mr. Philip Henry, minister of the gospel near Whitechurch in Shropshire, who dy'd June 24, 1696, in the sixty fifth year of his age
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1698
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
3. The Discipline he observed in his Congregation was, not such as he could have wished for, but the best he could get, considering what a scattered Flock he had, which was his trouble, but it could not be helped. He would sometimes apply to the circumstances he was in, that of Moses, Deut. 12. 8, 9. However, I see not but the end was effectually attained by the methods he took, though there wanted the formality ⟨p. 181⟩of Officers and Church-Meetings, for the purpose. If he heard of any that walked disorderly, he sent for them, and reproved them, gently or sharply, as he saw the Case required. If the Sin had scandal in it, he suspended them from the Ordinance of the Lord's Supper, till they gave some tokens of their Repentance and Reformation. And where the offence was public and gross, his judgment was, that some public satisfaction should be made to the Congregation, before Readmission. But whatever offence did happen, or breaches of the Christian Peace, Mr. Henry's peculiar Excellency lay in restoring with the Spirit of meekness; which, with his great Prudence and Love, and Condescension, did so much command the respects of his People, and win upon them, that there was a Universal Satisfaction in all his Management; and it may truly be said of him as it was of David, 2 Sam. 3. 36. That whatsoever he did pleased all the People. And it is an Instance and Evidence, that those Ministers who will Rule by Love and Meekness, need no Laws or Canons to Rule by, other than those of the Holy Scripture. How forcible are right words? Job. 6. 25.
3. The Discipline he observed in his Congregation was, not such as he could have wished for, but the best he could get, considering what a scatter'd Flock he had, which was his trouble, but it could not be helped. He would sometimes apply to the circumstances he was in, that of Moses, Deut. 12. 8, 9. However, I see not but the end was effectually attained by the methods he took, though there wanted the formality ⟨p. 181⟩