O that the door of my opportunities may be still open, and that my heart may be enlarged with holy zeal and activity for God this year; and that I may be thoroughly furnished with knowledge, wisdom, and grace, for every good word and work.

"If it be the will of God that this year should be a year of affliction to me, a year of sickness or reproach, or loss; if my family should be visited, if my liberties should be cut short, if public troubles should arise, if any calamity should befall me, which I am least apprehensive of now, I earnestly desire to submit to the divine disposal. Welcome, the holy will of God. Let me have God's favor, and the assurances of that, and by his grace nothing shall come amiss to me.

"If it be the will of God that I should finish my course this year, let me be found of Christ in peace, and by the grace of God, death shall be welcome to me. My wife and children, and relations, my congregation, which is very dear to me, my ministry, myself, and my all, I commit to God, whose I am, and whom I desire to serve. Let me be the Lord's only, wholly, and forever. Amen. The Lord say Amen to it."

"October 18, 1705. I have this day completed the forty-third year of my useless life. By the grace of God I live; I hope in his mercy, and I pant for his glory. May the small remnant of my time be a season of repentance for the sins, and of gratitude for the mercies, of the former part of my life. May God be my sun and shield, and may I be his servant and a subject of his kingdom, even unto the end, and forever. Amen and amen.

"December 31, 1705. We bring our years to an end, like a tale that is told. Lord teach us to number our days.

"In the review of the year I find,

"1. That I have as much reason as ever to be thankful to God. It has been a year of much mercy. My life has been continued to the end of it, though many of my brethren in the ministry have been removed in the midst

of their days, who, had they lived, would have done God more service than I can; particularly my dear brother Mr. Chorlton. I have had a good measure of health for my ministry and study; no returns or remains of my last year's illness.

"God has this year brought my children through the small-pox, and borne up my dear wife under great weak

ness.

"My mother also, though brought low, has been helped.

"My door of opportunity continues open at home and abroad; and I am willing to hope some good is done.

"That which is especially remarkable, as the mercy of this year, is the nappy posture of our public affairs, particularly at home. After a mighty struggle moderate counsels have prevailed. God has wonderfully inclined the queen's heart to such counsels; and useth her as an instrument of great good to the land, that the excellency of the power may be of God. Patrons of our liberty have been strangely raised up among those who have no kindness for us, or our way. The intemperate acts of bigots have proved to make mightily against themselves; there are many adversaries, and yet the door continues open. Great endeavors used to render us contemptible, odious, dangerous, and what not, and yet we live and go on, and young ones are coming in, and some hopeful ones. O that the power of godliness, holiness, seriousness, and heavenly-mindedness, might prevail more among us, and then we should have a very hopeful prospect. And who can tell but Infinite Wisdom may yet find out a way for comprehending us, though the present temper of our neighbors rather sets it at a greater distance than ever.

"2. I have reason to make the old complaint of dulness and weakness, and coldness of affection to divine things. The Lord strengthen the things which remain ! "Care about my children, providing something for

* Anne

them, has been often in my head; and perhaps, more than it should be. Lord, I cast the care upon thee, who hast provided well for me; the Lord care for them, and teach me my duty, and then with him I will leave the event."

66

January 1. 1705-6. It is of the Lord's mercy that I am not consumed. By night, on my bed, I endeavored to seek him whom my soul loveth; and now I begin this new year,

66

"1. Earnestly praying for the graces of the year with a humble subjection of soul to the blessed Spirit of God, that I may, some way or other, eminently honor and glorify God this year; that I may live this year to some purpose; to better purpose than I did the last. O that no temptation may so overtake me this year as to overcome me. To the conduct of divine grace, which is, I know, sufficient for me, I here solemnly resign myself, my thoughts, my affections, my will, and all the intents of my heart, to be directed into the right way, and kept and quickened in it Let me this year receive grace for grace.

"2. Patiently waiting for the events of the year, with a humble submission to the holy will of God. I know not what the year shall bring forth; but I know it shall bring forth nothing amiss to me, if God be my God in covenant; if it bring forth death-that I hope shall quite finish sin, and free me from it-Lord let thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word. I commit my family to my heavenly Father, to God, even my own God, my father's God, my children's God. O pour out thy Spirit upon my seed, thy blessing, that blessing, that blessing of blessings, upon my offspring, that they may be praising God on earth when I am praising him in heaven. Amen, amen."

January 1, 1707. My own act and deed, through the grace of God, I have made it many a time, and now I make it the first act of this new year, to resign myself afresh unto the Lord, not only for the year ensuing, but for my whole life, and forever.

"1. To thee, O God, I give up myself, to be used and employed for thee. I desire to live no longer than I may do thee some service. Make what use of me thou pleasest, only let me obtain mercy of the Lord, to be found diligent, humble, and faithful. O that the work of this year may be better done than that of the last, and my time more filled up; and that I may never grow weary of well doing.

"2. To thee, O God, I give up myself, to be disposed of by thee as thou pleasest. I know not what the year may bring forth to me, or to my family. But welcome the holy will of God; and God, by his grace, make me ready for it. If it be the last year of my life, my dying year, may I but finish my course with joy; and farewell this world. Whatever afflictions may this year befall me, I desire none of them may move me from God and my duty."

It may be properly noticed here, how greatly the afflictions which had befallen Mr. Henry, since the death of his father, had been mitigated by the preservation, and general convalescence, of his widowed mother. She had shared his trials; eased the burthen by bearing a part of it; and by the brilliancy of her Christian character, had eminently adorned the gospel, and encouraged him in the "work of the Lord."

At length, however, the period which declining health and advanced years had intimated was approaching, and to which Mr. Henry in one of the foregoing excerpts alludes, arrived. On the morning of the sabbath, May 25, 1707, he was visited by the melancholy tidings of her departure.

The necessity of doing more than barely noticing the event, is superseded by the other statements. There is nevertheless one fact recorded in the diary of her sorrowing son, which cannot with propriety be passed over. It is one of those episodes which, by naturally connecting itself with the main subject, gives a charm, rather than an interruption, to the narrative. "I find with the prof

its and rents of this current year, that there will be little more than to discharge my dear mother's funeral and legacies; but no debts at all. She lived with comfort; bore her testimony to the goodness of God's providence, which she had experienced all her days; did not increase what she had; nor coveted to lay up; but did good with it, and left a blessing behind her."

To return to the anniversary reflections.

"1707. October 18. To borrow Caleb's words, Josh. xiv. 10.-The Lord has kept me alive these forty-five years. So long I have lived, and lived under the divine protection; a wasting candle kept burning. But to how little purpose have I lived. Thus long I have cumbered the ground. O that I may yet bear fruit."

"1707, December 31. As to the year past I have as much reason as ever to lament my barrenness, and unfruitfulness, that I have not made a better proficiency in knowledge and grace. I find myself growing into years, being now turned forty-five. I begin to feel my journey in my bones, and I desire to be thereby loosened from the world, and from the body. The death of my dear and honored mother this year, has been a sore breach upon my comfort; for she was my skilful, faithful counsellor; and it is an intimation to me that now, in the order of nature, I must go next. My estate is somewhat increased the Lord enlarge my heart to do good with it; but as goods are increased, they are increased that eat them. My children are growing up, and that reminds me that I am going down. As to my ministry here, Mr. Mainwaring's leaving me, and his wife, has been very much my discouragement. But Providence so ordered it that Mr. Harvey's congregation are generally come in to us, or else we begin to dwindle, so that I should have gone on very heavily.

"January 1, 1707-8. early. Christ is a Christian's all, and he is my all.

*

"Unto thee, O blessed Jesus; my only Saviour and Redeemer, do I make a fresh surrender of my whole self

*See Note D.