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.
“There was no strange god with him to contribute to Israel's salvation, and therefore there should be none to share in Israel's homage and adoration, Ps. lxxxi. The settling of them in a good land. This was done in part already, in the happy planting of the two…”
“Ainsworth makes the plenty of good things in Canaan to be a figure of the fruitfulness of Christ's kingdom, and the heavenly comforts of his word and Spirit: for the children of his kingdom he has butter and milk, the sincere milk of the word; and strong meat …”
“They grew fat, that is, they grew big and unwieldy, unmindful of business, and unfit for it; dull and stupid, careless and senseless; and this was the effect of their plenty. Thus the prosperity of fools destroys them, Prov. i. Yet this was not the worst of it…”
“If there were any spirits or invisible powers that possessed their idol-temples and images, they were evil spirits and malignant powers, whom yet they did not need to worship for fear they should hurt them, as they say the Indians do; for those that faithfully…”
“A promise of the destruction of their enemies and oppressors at last, and the glorious deliverance of a remnant of Israel,”
“Sin makes us odious in the sight of the holy God; and no sinners are so loathsome to him as those that he has called, and that have called themselves, his sons and his daughters, and yet have been provoking to him. Note, The nearer any are to God in profession…”
“He kept him as the apple of his eye, with all the care and tenderness that could be, from the malignant influences of an open sky and air, and all the perils of an inhospitable desert. The pillar of cloud and fire was both a guide and a guard to them.”
“They were faithless, and a people that could not be trusted. When he saved them, and took them into covenant, he said, Surely they are children that will not lie ( Isa. lxiii. 8 ); but when they proved otherwise, children in whom is no faith, they deserved to …”
“But God can make the weakest instrument a scourge to the strongest sinner; and those that by sin insult their might Creator are justly insulted by the meanest of their fellow-creatures. This was remarkably fulfilled in the days of the judges, when they were so…”
“It shall destroy the very foundations of their mountains: there is no fence against the judgments of God when they come with commission to lay all waste. It shall burn to the lowest hell, that is, it shall bring them to the very depth of misery in this world, …”
“After many terrible threatenings of deserved wrath and vengeance, we have here surprising intimations of mercy, undeserved mercy, which rejoices against judgment, and by which it appears that God has no pleasure in the death of sinners, but would rather they s…”
“When the sword is without, there cannot but be terror within. 5 , Without were fightings, within were fears. Those who cast off the fear of God are justly exposed to the fear of enemies. [2.] Universal deaths.”
“In consideration of this, Mercy prevails for the sparing of a remnant and the saving of that unworthy people from utter ruin: I feared the wrath of the enemy. It is an expression after the manner of men; it is certain that God fears no man's wrath, but he acte…”
“8 , You fools, when will you be wise? God delights not to see sinners ruin themselves, but desires they will help themselves; and, if they will, he is ready to help them. It is a great piece of wisdom, and will contribute much to the return of sinners to God, …”
“When he was turned to be their enemy, as here, and fought against them for their sins, then he remembered the days of old, saying, Where is he that brought them out of the sea?”
“They were planted a choice vine, wholly a right seed, but by sin had become the degenerate plant of a strange vine ( Jer. ii. 21 ), and not only transcribed the iniquity of Sodom, but outdid it, Ezek. xvi.”
“God would soon have subdued their enemies ( Ps. lxxxi. 14 ), but that the wickedness of Israel delivered them into their hands. For their vine, that is, Israel's, is of the vine of Sodom,”
“His appearance was glorious: he shone forth like the sun when he goes forth in his strength. Even Seir and Paran, two mountains at some distance, were illuminated by the divine glory which appeared on Mount Sinai, and reflected some of the rays of it, so brigh…”
“Those that enjoy the word of God and the means of grace have reason to say, We have a goodly heritage. He is indeed a rich man in whom the word of Christ dwells richly. Perhaps the law is called their inheritance because it was given them with their inheritanc…”
“"Though he must not expect to flourish ( Gen. xlix. 4 ), yet let him not perish." All the Chaldee paraphrasts refer this to the other world: Let Reuben live in life eternal, and not die the second death, so Onkelos.”
“It may refer in particular to David, as a type of Christ, that God would hear his prayers, Ps. xx. 1 (and Christ was heard always, John xi. 42 ), that he would give him victory over his enemies, and success in his great undertakings.”
“Thummim signifies integrity, and Urim illumination: Let these be with thy holy one, that is, "Lord, let the high priest ever be both an upright man and an understanding man." A good prayer to be put up for the ministers of the gospel, that they may have clear …”
“This was the constant self-denial they submitted to, that they might observe God's word, and keep the covenant of priesthood. Note, Those that are called to minister in holy things must sit loose to the relations and interests that are dearest to them in this …”
“Note, Preaching is necessary, not only for the first planting of churches, but for the preserving and edifying of churches when they are planted. (2.) They were to deal for the people with God, in burning incense to the praise and glory of God, and offering sa…”
“This prayer is a prophecy that God will certainly reckon with those that are enemies to his ministers, and will keep up a ministry in his church to the end of time, in spite of all the designs of the gates of hell against it. Saul rose up against the Lord's pr…”