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Matthew Henry is known for his practical and devotional “Commentary on the Old and New Testament” which has gained a reputation as the best and most widely-used work of its kind.   “It was the product of many years of scholarship and industry by Henry who lived through a period of great turmoil in the religious life of the country” (truthfulwords.org).

Born in a Welsh farmhouse on 18th October 1662,  Matthew Henry was the second son of Rev Philip Henry and his wife Katharine.  He had one brother, John who died at the age of six, and four sisters, Sarah, Katharine, Eleanor, and Ann.

Childhood and education

Just before Matthew was born, his father had, along with nearly two thousand other ministers, refused to submit to the Act of Uniformity, which required the church to use the new forms of liturgy.  Philip thus left his parish at Worthenbury, Shropshire, and moved his family to neighbouring Iscoed, Flintshire.  Consequently,  the Henry children spent their formative years “in a Christian community that lay ‘under the cross’ of state harassment and persecution.”

Matthew was brought up with all the advantages of a godly home.  He was a sickly child, but his spiritual vigour made up for his lack of physical heath.  He showed an early love for learning and was able to read the Bible by the age of three.   Because the little lad was so engrossed with his books, his concerned mother often had to “drag the little student from his closet, and chase him into the fields.”

Early in life, he was taught by his gifted father till the age of eighteen.  He continued his education at a nonconformist academy in Islington, then a village near London.  Here he was tutored by Thomas Doolittle, an eminent Presbyterian scholar who had been converted as a boy in Kidderminster under the preaching of Richard Baxter (1615-1691).  In 1682, however, persecution forced the academy to disperse, and young Henry returned home.

When he next returned to London, it was to study law at Gray’s Inn.  However, as his heart was inclined to the ministry, he ‘ever kept in view’ the vocation of the pastoral ministry (John Bickerton Williams in his biography of the Puritan commentator.)  However, this sacred ambition was not realised until 1687.

Godly influences

His father’s godly devotion and diligence deeply influenced the young man.  “No character could be more impressive than Philip Henry’s, no spirit more impressible than that of Philip Henry’s son.” Constantly found in his father’s company, young Henry witnessed the latter’s deep prayer life and godly conduct.  He came under his father’s preaching not only on the Sabbath but also during the family’s worship hour.   In such a sacred and solemn environment, the thoughtful boy grew in spiritual conviction.  Apparently, it was one of his father’s sermons that – in his own words - “melted” him and caused him to “enquire after Christ.”  

He “was often remarkably solemnized; and when the services of the sanctuary were over, would haste to his little chamber to weep and pray, and could scarcely be prevailed on to come down and share the family meal.  On one of these occasions his father had preached on the grain of mustard-seed, and, wistful to possess this precious germ, he took the opportunity of a walk with his father to tell his fears and anxieties about himself.  The conversation is not recorded, but he afterwards told his confidante, his sister, that he hoped he too had received a ‘grain of grace,’ and that in time it might come to something.  With his young sisters he held a little prayer-meeting on the Saturday afternoons; and amid the sequestered sanctity of their peaceful home, and under the loving eye and wise instruction of their tender parents, these olive plants grew round about the table” (wholesome words.org).

The house was always open to Philip Henry’s distinguished contemporaries whose godly company delighted his young son and was a blessed influence in his formative years.  Among the eminent visitors was William Cook, “an aged, painful, faithful minister so absorbed in study and in communion with a better country that he scarce ever adverted to any of the things around him … On a mind so pious and reverential as was that of the younger Henry, the sight and conversations of so many distinguished ministers produced a strong impression; and, united to his natural gravity and studiousness, predisposed himself for the ministry.  It was his great delight to be in their society, or in the company of warm-hearted Christians, listening to their discourse, or essaying to join in it.   He inherited all his father’s affection for the Bible, doting over its every sentence with curious avidity, and treasuring up its sayings in his heart.  And having long practised the transcription of sermons, anon he began to make them” (wholesomewords.org).   (… to be continued)                      

- Pastor