The Voices
Matthew Henry
The Chester nonconformist who rose before dawn for ten years to write a whole-Bible commentary plain enough for a farming family to read at the table.
Short bio
Matthew Henry was born on October 18, 1662, at Broad Oak in Flintshire, on the Welsh border — a few months after the Act of Uniformity threw his father out of the Church of England. Philip Henry was one of roughly two thousand ministers ejected in 1662 for refusing to conform. He lost his living, kept preaching where he could, and taught his children at home. Matthew was a sickly boy who is said to have been reading Bible chapters aloud with comment at three years old. He grew up in a house where family worship happened twice a day and where nonconformity had a price attached to it. He studied under Thomas Doolittle at an academy for dissenters, then went to London in 1685 to read law at Gray's Inn — a sensible career for a man whose religion barred him from the universities. He gave it up. In 1687, at twenty-four, he was privately ordained and went to Chester as minister of a Presbyterian congregation. He stayed twenty-five years. He preached twice on Sunday, catechized the children, lectured on weeknights, visited constantly, and preached in the surrounding villages and in the county jail. The congregation grew to some hundreds of communicants and built a chapel in Crook Street. He began the commentary in November 1704. His method was ordinary and brutal: rise at four or five in the morning and write before the day's work, then take up the evening after it. He wrote for the family table — for a farmer reading aloud to his household, not for a scholar. The result is not technical. It is the text explained clause by clause and then pressed home, with a gift for the memorable line that has kept it quoted for three hundred years. In 1712 he moved, reluctantly, to a congregation at Mare Street, Hackney, in London. On June 22, 1714, riding back toward Hackney after preaching in Chester, he was thrown from his horse near Nantwich. He died that night at Tarporley, aged fifty-one. He had finished through the end of Acts. Thirteen fellow ministers completed Romans through Revelation from his notes and papers, and the whole *Exposition of the Old and New Testaments* was published in six volumes. It has never gone out of print. Its readers make the case for it better than any summary can. George Whitefield read it through four times, the last time on his knees. Spurgeon told his students in *Commenting and Commentaries* that every minister ought to read it entirely and carefully through at least once. John Wesley abridged it for his people. It sits on more shelves, in more languages, than any other commentary written in English. Sources: Matthew Henry, *An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments*; J. B. Williams, *Memoirs of the Life, Character and Writings of the Rev. Matthew Henry*; C. H. Spurgeon, *Commenting and Commentaries*; *Diaries and Letters of Philip Henry*, ed. Matthew Henry Lee.
Notable works
2 listed
| Title | Year | Description |
|---|---|---|
| An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments | 1710 | — |
| Directions for Daily Communion with God | 1712 | — |
Where to find them
Their words on MannaFest
14,170 quotes across 66 books
Where this voice speaks on the site — each quote links to the verse it was chosen for.
“Joab was disgusted with it, and did it by halves; David was ashamed of it, and willing it should be forgotten, because there fell wrath for it against Israel. A good man cannot, in the reflection, please himself with that which he knows God is displeased with,…”
“This was a sufficient strength for the securing of the public peace and safety. Those that are Israelites indeed must learn war; for we have enemies to grapple with, whom we are concerned constantly to stand upon our guard against. He changed them every month;…”
“David was a great soldier, a great scholar, and a great prince, and yet a great husband of his estate, kept a great deal of ground in his own hand, and stocked it, not for pleasure, but for profit; for the king himself is served of the field, Eccles.”
“Another, who no doubt excelled in learning and prudence, was tutor to his children. Ahithophel, a very cunning man, was his counsellor: but Hushai, an honest man, was his companion and confidant.”
“This he had signified to Solomon before, ch. xxii. A house of rest for the ark is here said to be a house of rest for the footstool of our God; for heaven is his throne of glory; the earth, and the most magnificent temples that can be built upon it, are but hi…”
“Judah was not the eldest son of Jacob, yet God chose that tribe to be the ruling tribe; Jacob entailed the sceptre upon it, Gen. xlix. It does not appear that the family of Jesse was the senior house of that tribe; from Judah it is certain that it was not, for…”
“Thus he declares the decree, that the Lord had said to Solomon, as a type of Christ, Thou art my son ( Ps. ii. 7 ), the son of my love; for he was called Jedidiah, because the Lord loved him, and Christ is his beloved Son. Of him God said, as a figure of him t…”
“"God is witness, and this congregation is witness, that they have good counsel given them, and fair warning; if they do not take it, it is their fault, and God and man will be witnesses against them." See 1 Tim. v. 21; Those that profess religion, as they tend…”
“We make nothing of religion if we do not mind it, and make heart-work of it. Serve him with a perfect, that is, an upright heart (for sincerity is our gospel perfection), and with a willing mind, from a principle of love, and as a willing people, cheerfully an…”
“Bishop Patrick supposes that, among other things, the tabernacle which Moses reared and all the utensils of it, which there was now no further occasion for, were laid up here, signifying that in the fulness of time all the Mosaic economy, all the rites and cer…”
“Christ the true temple, the church the gospel temple, and heaven the everlasting temple, are all framed according to the divine councils, and the plan laid in the divine wisdom, ordained before the world for God's glory and ours.”
“In the tabernacle there was but one golden candlestick; in the temple there were ten ( 1 Kings vii. 49 ), besides silver ones, which, it is supposed, were hand-candlesticks,”
“Besides the two cherubim over the mercy-seat, there were two much larger, whose wings reached from wall to wall ( 1 Kings vi. 23 , &c.), and of these David here gave Solomon the pattern, called a chariot; for the angels are the chariots of God, Ps. lxviii.”
“The same that was Joshua's encouragement ( Josh. i. 5 ), and Solomon's, is given to all believers, Heb. xiii. He will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”
“But now the time draws night that he must die, and, as a type of the Son of David, the nearer he comes to his end the more busy he is, and does his work with all his might. He is now a little recovered from the indisposition mentioned 1 Kings i. 1 , when they …”
“(1.) We must each of us, in our several places, serve the Lord, and consecrate our service to him, separate it from other things that are foreign and interfere with it, and direct and design it for the honour and glory of God. (2.) We must make the service of …”
“So he said who knew their hearts. Nay, they offered with a perfect heart, from a good principle and with a sincere respect to the glory of God,”
“The nearer we come to the world of everlasting praise the more we should speak the language and do the work of that world. He adores God, and ascribes glory to him as the God of Israel, blessed for ever and ever. Our Lord's prayer ends with a doxology much lik…”
“His is the power, and it is almighty and irresistible; power belongs to him, and all the power of all the creatures is derived from him and depends upon him. His is the glory; for his glory is his own end and the end of the whole creation. All the glory we can…”
“Note, (1.) It is a great instance of the power of God's grace in us to be able to do the work of God willingly. He works both to will and to do; and it is in the day of his power that his people are made willing, Ps. cx. (2.) We must give God all the glory of …”
“"We have it from thee as a free gift, and therefore are bound to use it for thee; and what we present to thee is but rent or interest from thy own." "In like manner" (says bishop Patrick) "we ought to acknowledge God in all spiritual things, referring every go…”
“In this prayer he addresses God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a God in covenant with them and with us for their sakes. Lord, give us grace to make good our part of the covenant, that we may not forfeit the benefit of it. Or thus: they were kept in t…”
“"Lord, give him a perfect heart, not only in general to keep thy commandments, but in particular to build the palace, that he may do that service with a single eye." Yet his building the house would not prove him to have a perfect heart unless he made conscien…”
“The municipal laws of their kingdom were divine. Urim and prophets were the privy counsellors of their princes; therefore is their throne called the throne of the Lord. Solomon's kingdom typified the kingdom of the Messiah, and his is indeed the throne of the …”
“David had more faith, and therefore had it more tried. They submitted themselves (Heb. They gave the hand under Solomon ), that is, bound themselves by oath to be true to him (putting the hand under the thigh was a ceremony anciently used in swearing); or they…”