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

The Judges Lady was a Person of more than ordinary Parts and Wisdom, in Piety inferior to few, but in Learning Superior to most of her Sex, which I could give Instances of from what I find among Mr. Henry's Papers, particularly an Elegy she made upon the Death of the Famous Mr. John Selden, who was her great Friend.

The Judges Lady was a Person of more than ordinary Parts and Wisdom, in Piety inferiour to few, but in Learning Superiour to most of her Sex, which I could give Instances of from what I find among Mr. Henry's Papers, particularly an Elegy she made upon the Death of the Famous Mr. Iohn Selden, who was her great Friend.

This was the Lady whose Agency first brought Mr. Henry into this Country. She wrote to a Friend of hers Mr. Francis Palmer Student of Christ-Church, to desire him to recommend to her a Young Man to be in her Family, and to take the over-sight of her Sons (some of whom were now ready for the University) and to Preach at Worthenbury on the Lord's-Days, for which a very honourable Encouragement was promised. Mr. Palmer proposed it to his Friend Mr. Henry, who was willing for one half Year to undertake it, provided it might be required of him to Preach but once on the Lord's-Day, and that some other supply might be got for 'tother part of the day, he being now but Twenty two Years of Age, and newly entered upon that great Work. Provided also, that he should be engaged ⟨p. 29⟩but for half a Year, as little intending to break off so soon from an Academical Life, which he delighted in so much. But preferring Usefulness before his own private Satisfaction, he was willing to make trial for a while, in the Country, as one that sought not his own things, but the things of Jesus Christ, to whose Service in the Work of the Ministry he had entirely devoted himself, bending his Studies wholly that way. In the latter part of his time at Oxford, as one grown weary of that which he used to say he found little to his purpose; he employed his time mostly in searching the Scriptures, and collecting useful Scripture Observations, which he made very familiar to him, and with which he was throughly furnished for this good Work. He got a Bible interleaved, in which he wrote short Notes upon Texts of Scriptures as they occurred. He would often say, I ad other Bk, that I may be the better al to understand the Scripture.