[The following Translation is from a Copy preserved by the Family; and was most likely written by the Author of the Epitaph,

Dr. Tylston:

To the sacred memory

Of Philip Henry, of Broad Oak,
In the County of Flint;
Master of Arts, and Minister of
The Holy Gospel;

Some time Pastor of Worthenbury;
Born in the Royal Palace, of good
And honest Parents;

Of Westminster School, and chosen
Thence a King's Scholar
Of Christ's College, Oxford;
A man, early remarkable,
And born to be an example

Of truly apostolick and primitive piety,
A solid and well-polished judgment,
Excellent memory, and fruitful invention,
Most fine learning, candid temper,
And graceful behaviour,

Who always kept his own, and the
Reputation of others, inviolable

e;

A diligent worshipper of the Divine Majesty;
An exquisite interpreter

Of the Word of God,

And no less happy in moving the affections
Of others, than in tempering his own;
Who, both in preaching and living,
Openly set forth Jesus Christ,
And his Law, as a Pattern;
A prudent manager of his affairs,
Mild, peaceable, and hospitable;
To offices of piety and charity, ever ready;
Was pleasant to his friends,

And courteous to all ;

His body, wore out

With ministerial labours,

And so no longer a match

For so great a soul,

He dismissed to the adjacent repository,

To the memory of this best of men, his sorrowful son-in-law

erected this monument,

John Tylston, M. D.*

June 24, 1696.

Aged 65.

From Mrs. Brett's hand-writing.

It appears from Mr. Matthew Henry's diary, that the mural tablet was subsequently obnoxious:

"1704-5. I had a letter from Mr. Travers of Lichfield, that the chancellor there designed to attempt the demolishing of my father's monument.'

And afterwards, he writes :

"1712, March 22. Wrote to Cos. Eddow, to return him thanks for his care this week of the remains of my dear father and mother in Whitchurch church, where they are laying the foundation of a new one, and have unworthily invaded my right there."+

66

When, by a good man's grave I muse alone,
Methinks an angel sits upon the stone;

Like those of old, on that thrice-hallow'd night,
Who sate and watch'd in raiment heav'nly-bright;
And, with a voice inspiring joy not fear,

Says, pointing upward,-That, he is not here;
That, he is risen.‡]

* Orig. MS.

+ Ib.

Human Life; a Poem; by Sam. Rogers, p. 65. Mr. Rogers is descended from Mr. Henry, being the great grandson of his second daughter, Eleanor, Mrs. Radford.

A

SERMON,

PREACHED AT

BROAD OAK,

JUNE 28, 1696,

ON OCCASION OF THE

Death

OF

THE REV. PHILIP HENRY, M. A.

WHO FELL ASLEEP IN THE LORD, JUNE 24, 1696, IN THE 65TH YEAR

OF HIS AGE.

BY HIS SON,

THE REV. MATTHEW HENRY, V. D. M.

NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.

A

SERMO N,

&c.

HEBREWS, xi. 4. LATTER PART.

And by it he being dead yet speaketh.

DEAD and yet speaketh, speaketh and yet dead! Is not this a paradox? We always took the grave for a land of silence; and they that are gone down to the congregations of the dead, are said to dwell in silence; the dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. Psalm, cxv. 17. And if praising God be silenced in the grave, every thing else should. It is fit there should be silence, for there is no knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave where we are going, Ecclesiastes, ix. 10. And yet my text tells you of one being dead, and yet he speaketh. If you ask how can this be? The answer is ready in the text: faith, which makes other paradoxes plain and easy, makes this so; for by it, by faith, he being dead yet speaketh. Faith is a quickening grace, a speaking grace. Faith calls things that are not, as though they were, by fastening upon the word of the eternal God, which doth so. Romans, iv. 17. The person spoken of is he who stands here in the imprimis of the Old Testament worthies, that did, and got such great things by faith: the first of God's witnesses called to appear to testify the excellency of the grace of faith. He was, for aught we know, the first man that died, the first that trod that darksome valley, the first begotten to the dead as Christ, the first begotten from the dead.* He died a martyr. So early did martyrdom come into the world: the first that died died for his religion. That is, the man of whom it is here said,-that, by faith he being dead yet speaketh. That we may give the text its full extent of usefulness.-Let us apply it to Abel himself; to all the saints; to the martyrs; and, especially, to faithful ministers; and, particularly, to him, whom the Lord hath taken from our head this day.

The first who went to the grave, went to heaven. God would not let the devil have the first-fruits. Those were to be God's. P. Henry. From Matthew Henry's MS.