The Principles Matthew Henry Employs

In the “Preface” section of his book, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, Henry provides a list of the six driving principles he employed while writing his book.

1. “That religion is the on thing useful; and to know, and love, and fear God our Maker, and in all the instances of both of devout affection, and of good conversation, to keep his commandments is without doubt, the whole of man” (ic)
   • “to preserve honor and order” (ic)
   • “for us to answer ‘the end of our creation” (ic)
   • “obtain God’s favor” (ic)
   • “have peace and comfort” (ic)
   • “be happy” (ic)
2. “That divine revelation is necessary to true religion, to the being and support of it.” (ic)
3. “That divine revelation only comes through God’s word, the Bible” (ic)
   • “it is that which is written, that remains”
   • “The scripture indeed is not complied as a methodical system or body of divinity…but several ways of writing (histories, laws, prophecies, songs, epistles and even proverbs)”
   • “a mind rightly disposed by a humble, sincere subjection to his Maker, will easily discover
     • “the image of God’s wisdom in the awful depth of its mysteries”
     • “the image of his sovereignty in the commanding majesty of its style”
     • “the image of his unity in the unspotted purity of its precepts, and”
     • “the image of his goodness in the manifest tendency of the whole to the welfare and happiness of mankind in both worlds”
4. “That the scriptures of the Old and New Testament were purposely designed for our learning.” (c)
   • “The subject of the holy scriptures is the universal and perpetual , and therefore of common concern. It is intended,
     • 1. To revive the universal and perpetual law of nature, the very remains of which (or ruins rather) of natural conscience, give us hints that we must look somewhere else for a fairer copy.”
     • 2. “To reveal the universal and perpetual law of grace, which God’s common beneficence to the children of men, such as puts them into a better state than that of devils, gives us some ground to expect.”
   • “…the New Testament expounds and completes the old, and thereby makes it more serviceable to us now than it was to the Jewish church, as the Old Testament confirms and illustrates the New, and shows us Jesus Christ the same yesterday that he is to-day and will be forever.”
5. “That the holy scriptures were not only designed for our learning, but are the settled standing rule of our faith and practice, by which we must be governed now and judged shortly.” (c-ci)
6. “That therefore it is the duty of all Christians diligently to search the scriptures, and it is the office of ministers to guide and assist them therein.” (ci)

Works Cited

Henry, Matthew. Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. “Preface”. Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.

© 2024 Angela Hormberg