An account of the life and death of Mr. Philip Henry, minister of the…

When some zealous People in the Country would have him to Preach against Top-knots, and other Vanities in Apparel, he would say, that was none of his Business; if he could but persuade People to Christ, the Pride and Vanity, and Excess of those things would fall of Course; and yet he had a dislike to Vanity and Gaiety of dress, and allowed it not in those that he had influence upon. His Rule was, that in such things we must neither be Owls nor Apes; not affect singularity, nor affect modishness; nor (as he used to observe from 1 Pet. 3. 3.) make the putting on of Apparel our adorning, because Christians have better things to adorn themselves with. When some complained to him of a Relation of theirs, that would not let them dress his Children with Ribbands, and other fine things, why truly (said Mr. Henry) those things are fit for Children; thereby reproving both him that would not allow them to his Children, and them that perhaps minded them too much themselves.

When some zealous People in the Country would have him to Preach against Top-knots, and other Vanities in Apparel, he would say, that was none of his Business; if he could but perswade People to Christ, the Pride and Vanity, and Excess of those things would fall of Course; and yet he had a dislike to Vanity and Gaiety of dress, and allowed it not in those that he had influence upon. His Rule was, that in such things we must neither be Owles nor Apes; not affect singularity, nor affect modishness; nor (as he used to observe from 1 Pet. 3. 3.) make the putting on of Apparel our adorning, because Christians have better things to adorn themselves with. When some complained to him of a Relation of theirs, that would not let them dress his Children with Ribbands, and other fine things, why truly (said Mr. Henry) those things are fit for Children; thereby reproving both him that would not allow them to his Children, and them that perhaps minded them too much themselves.

He often, both in Sermons and Discourses, would press People to fix to themselves some good Principles, and to come off from the Corrupt and Carnal Principles that Worldly People go by. He took all occasions to recommend such Principles as these: That God who is the first and best, should have the first and best; That a Part in Christ is a good Part; That Soul Prosperity is the best Prosperity, and that it is well or ill with us, according as it is well or ill with our Souls; That Honesty is the best Policy; That those that would have the comfort of Relations, must be careful to do the Duty of them; That All is well that ends everlastingly well; That Time and the things of Time, are nothing compared with Eternity and the things of Eternity; That it is better to suffer the greatest Affliction, than to commit the least Sin; That it highly concerns us to do that now, which we shall most wish we had done when we come to dye; That Work for God is its own Wages; That it is folly for a Man to do that which he must certainly undo again by Repentance, or be undone to all Eternity Such as these were the Principles he would have Christians to govern themselves by.