Thomas Manton · 3 of 60

Some Memoirs of the Life and Character of the Reverend and Learned Thomas Manton, D.D. · Part 3

In 1679 was published, in octavo, ‘Eighteen Sermons on the Second Chapter of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, containing the Description, Rise, Growth, and Fall of Antichrist; with divers Cautions and Arguments to establish Christians against the Apostasy of the Church of Rome.’ This was well fitted for common use, and very seasonable at that time. In the preface to this volume, Mr Baxter says of him, ‘How sound he was in judgment against extremes in the controversies of these times; how great a lamenter of the scandalous and dividing mistakes of some self-conceited men; how earnestly desirous of healing our present breaches, and not unacquainted with the proper means and terms; how hard and successful a student; how frequent and laborious a preacher; and how highly and deservedly esteemed, is commonly known here. The small distaste which some few had of him, I took for a part of his honour, who would not win reputation with any by flattering them in their mistakes, or unwarrantable ways. He used not to serve God with that which cost him nothing; nor was of their mind who cannot expect or extol God’s grace without denying those endeavours of men to which his necessary grace exciteth them. He knew that, “without Christ we can do nothing;” and yet that, “by Christ strengthening us, we can do all things” which God hath made necessary to be done by us. He was not of their mind who think it derogatory to the honour of Christ to praise his works in the souls and lives of any of his servants; and that it is to the honour of his grace that his justified ones are graceless, and that their Judge should dishonour his own righteousness, if he make his disciples more righteous personally than the scribes and pharisees; and will say to them, “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” He knew how to regard the righteousness and . intercession of Christ, with pardon of sin and divine acceptance, instead of legal personal perfection, without denying either the necessity or assigned office of our faith and repentance, and evangelical sincerity in obeying Him who redeemed and justifies us. He knew the difference between man’s being justified from the charge of being liable to damnation as Christless, impenitent, unbelieving, and ungodly; and being liable to damnation for mere sin as sin, against the law of innocence, which required of us no less than personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience. He greatly lamented the wrong which truth and the church underwent from those who neither know such difference, nor have humility enough to suspect their judgment, nor to forbear reviling those who have not as confused and unsound apprehensions and expressions as themselves.’

In the year 1684 Dr Bates published his ‘Exposition of the Lord’s Prayer,’ in octavo. In 1685 Mr Hurst published, in octavo, ‘Several Discourses tending to promote Peace and Holiness among Christians;’ and dedicated them to Arthur, Earl of Anglesea, to whom he was chaplain. In the same year was published, ‘Christ’s Temptations and Transfiguration explained and improved; and Christ’s Eternal Existence and the Dignity of his Person asserted and proved, in opposition to the Socinians,’ in octavo. Dr Jacomb, who published this volume, says of him, ‘That he did not so much concern himself in what is polemical and controversial; but chose rather, in a plain way, as best suiting with sermon-work, to assert and prove the truth by scripture testimony and argument; and that he has done to the full.’ In 1703 was published, ‘A Practical Exposition of Isaiah liii.’ This, though published last, was earlier written than any of the other; for so he speaks in the preface to the Exposition of James, ‘I have the rather chosen this scripture, that it might be an allay to those comforts, which, in another exercise, I have endeavoured to draw out of Isaiah liii. I would, at the same time s carry on the doctrine of faith and manners, and show you your duty, together with your encouragement; lest, with Ephraim, you should only love to tread out the corn, and refuse to break the clods. We are all apt to divorce comfort from duty, and content ourselves with a barren, unfruitful, knowledge of Christ; as if all He required of the world were only a few naked, cold, unactive apprehensions of his merit, and all things were so done for us, that nothing remained to be done by us. This is the wretched conceit of many in the present age; and, therefore, they abuse the sweetness of grace to looseness, and the power of it to laziness. Christ’s merits, and the Spirit’s efficacy, are the common places from whence they draw all the defence and excuse of their own wantonness and idleness.’

Besides these lesser volumes, there are five large volumes in folio. The first was, ‘Sermons upon the 119th Psalm,’ published in the year 1681. Dr Bates says, ‘They were preached by him in his usual course of three times a week; which I do not mention to lessen their worth, but to show how diligent and exact he was in performing his duty. I cannot but admire the fecundity and variety of his thoughts; that though the same things so often occur in the verses of this psalm, yet, by a judicious observing the different arguments and motives whereby the psalmist enforces the same request, or some other circumstance, every sermon contains new conceptions, and proper to the text.’ Mr Alsop says of them, ‘The matter of them is spiritual, and speaks the author one intimately acquainted with the secrets of wisdom. He writes like one who knew the psalmist’s heart, and felt in his own soul the sanctifying power of what he wrote. Their design is practical, beginning with the understanding, dealing with the affections, but still driving on the design of practical holiness. The manner of handling is not inferior to the dignity of the matter; so plain, as to accommodate the most sublime truths to the meanest spiritual capacity; and yet so elevated, as to approve itself to the most refined understanding; which knows how to be succinct without obscurity; and, where the weight of the argument requires it, to enlarge without nauseous prolixity. He studied more to profit than please; and yet an honest heart will be then best pleased when most profited. He chose rather to speak appositely than elegantly, and yet the judicious account propriety the greatest elegance. He laboured more industriously to conceal his learning than others to ostentate theirs; and yet, when he would most veil it, the discerning reader cannot but discover it, and rejoice to find such a mass and treasure of useful learning couched under a well-studied and artificial plainness. I have admired, and must recommend to the observation of the reader, the fruitfulness of the author’s holy invention, accompanied with solid judgment, in that whereas the coincidence of the matter in this psalm might have superseded his labours in very many verses; yet, without force, or offering violence to the sacred text, he has, either from the connexion of one verse with its predecessor, or the harmony between the parts of the same verse, found out new matter to entertain his own meditations, and the reader’s expectations.’

The second volume was published in 1684, and contains sermons on the whole of the 25th of Matthew and 17th of John, and the 6th and 8th of the Romans, and the 5th of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians. Dr Collings, who seems to have written the preface to this volume, says, ‘In all his writings one finds a quick and fertile invention, governed with a solid judgment; and the issue of both expressed in a grave and decent style. He had a heart full of love and zeal for God and his glory; and out of the abundance of his heart his mouth continually spake. So frequent, and yet so learned and solid, preaching by the same person was little less than miraculous. He was a good and learned, a grave and judicious, person; and his auditory never failed, though he laboured more than most preachers, to hear from him a pious, learned, and judicious discourse. He is one of those authors upon the credit of whose name not only private and less intelligent people, but even scholars, may venture to buy any book which was his.’ The third volume was published in 1689, and contains sermons upon the 11th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews; with a treatise of the Life of Faith, and another of Self-denial; and some preparatory sermons for the Lord’s Supper, and sermons before the Parliament. It was dedicated to King William, soon after the Revolution, by Mr Howe, in as noble and masterly a preface as is, perhaps, anywhere to be met with. The fourth volume was published in 1693, and contains sermons upon several texts of scripture. It is directed to the Lord Philip Wharton, by Mr William Taylor, who was many years my lord’s chaplain, and transcribed a great part of the doctor’s notes for the press, and was himself a person of great integrity and wisdom. He tells my lord, ‘Though his preaching was so constant, yet in all his sermons may be observed a solidity of judgment, exactness of method, fulness of matter, strength of argument, persuasive elegance, together with a serious vein of piety running through the whole, as few have come near him, but none have exceeded him.’ Mr Alsop says of this volume:—‘Acquired learning humbly waits upon divine revelation; great ministerial gifts were managed by greater grace. A warm zeal, guided by solid judgment; a fervent love to saints and sinners, kindled by a burning zeal for the interest of a Saviour; and a plain elegance of style adapted to the meanest capacity, and yet far above the contempt of the highest pretender.’ The fifth volume was published in 1701, and contains sermons on the 5th chapter to the Ephesians, on the 3d of the Philippians, on the 1st chapter of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, and on the 3d chapter of the First Epistle of John, with one hundred and forty sermons on particular texts. This volume, though it appeared last, and after so many others, is so far from running dregs, that, in my opinion, it contains some of his ripest and most digested thoughts; and is preferable, both for the subject and management, to any one of the former. This was directed to the excellent Sir Thomas Abney, then Lord Mayor of London, and to the Lady Abney, by Mr Howe; in which he expresses his sense of Dr Manton in this remarkable paragraph: ‘And that an eminent servant of Christ, who, through a tract of so many years, hath been so great and public a teacher and example of the ancient seriousness, piety, righteousness, sobriety, strictness of mariners, with most diffusive charity (for which London has been renowned, for some ages, beyond most cities in the world), should have his memory revived by such a testimony from persons under your character, and who hold so public a station as you do in it, can never be thought unbecoming, as long as clearly explained and exemplified religion, solid useful learning, and good sense, are in any credit in the world.’

There are some sermons of his in the several volumes of the ‘Morning Exercises;’ for Dr Manton was too considerable to be missed in any design which was set on foot for the public good. There is one in that at St Giles’s, on ‘Man’s Impotency to Help himself out of the Misery he is in by Nature;’ another in that at Cripplegate, about ‘Strictness in Holy Duties;’ a third in the Supplement, concerning ‘The Improvement of our Baptism;’ and a fourth in that against Popery, upon ‘The Sufficiency of the Scripture.’ There is also a funeral sermon for Mrs Jane Blackwel, upon ‘The Blessed Estate of them who Die in the Lord,’ in the year 1656. These sermons, with the two before the House of Commons, and one on the death of Mr Love, including the Exposition on James and Jude, were all he published himself; and are written with a correct judgment and beautiful simplicity. His other works were all printed from his sermon-notes, prepared for the pulpit; and whosoever shall consider the greatness of the number and variety of the subjects, the natural order in which they are disposed, and the skilful management; the constant frequency of his preaching, and the affairs of business in which he was often engaged, will easily be able to make a judgment of his great abilities and vast application, and to make the requisite allowances for posthumous works; especially when he tells us that he was ‘humbled with the constant burden of four times a week preaching;’ and to the last, three times; and that where ‘the style seems too curt and abrupt, know that I sometimes reserved myself for sudden inculcations and enlargement.’ And though, as they now appear, they have been well received, and very useful to younger ministers and Christian families, yet I believe I might safely venture to say, that if he had had the same leisure to compose and polish, he was capable of equalling any performances of that kind of the celebrated writers of the age; and that hardly any, under his disadvantage, and so constantly employed, would have exceeded his. As no man of the age had a greater number of his sermons published after his death, perhaps it will not displease the reader to see his own judgment of posthumous writings. ‘Let it not stumble thee,’ says he, ‘that the piece is posthumous, and comes out so long after the author’s death; it were to be wished that they who excel in public gifts would during life publish their own works, to prevent spurious obtrusions upon the world, and to give them their last hand and polishing, as the apostle Peter was careful to write before his decease (2 Pet. i. 12). But usually the Church’s treasure is most increased by legacies. As Elijah let fall his mantle when he was taken up into heaven, so God’s eminent servants, when their persons could no longer remain in this world, have left behind them some worthy pieces, as monuments of their graces, and zeal for the public welfare. Whether it be out of a modest sense of their own endeavours, as being loth, upon choice and of their own accord, to venture abroad into the world; or whether it be that being occupied and taken up with other labours; or whether it be in conformity to Christ, who would not leave his Spirit till his departure; or whether it be out of hope that their works would find a more kindly reception after their death, the living being more liable to envy and reproach, but when the author is in heaven, the work is more esteemed upon earth; whether for this or that cause, usual it is that not only the life, but the death of God’s servants have been profitable to the Church. By that means many useful treatises have been freed from that privacy and obscurity to which, by the modesty of their authors, they had formerly been confined.’

He was a person of general learning, and had a fine collection of books, which sold for a considerable sum after his death; among which was the noble ‘Paris edition of the Councils,’ in thirty volumes, in folio, which the bookseller offered him for sixty pounds, or his Sermons on the One Hundred and Nineteenth Psalm. He began to transcribe them fair, but finding it too great an interruption in the frequent returns of his stated work, Vie chose rather to pay him in money. His great delight was in his study, and he was scarce ever seen without a book in his hand, if he was not engaged in company. He had diligently read the Fathers, and the principal schoolmen, which was a fashionable piece of learning in those times. And though he greatly preferred the plainness and simplicity of the former to the art and subtilty of the latter, yet he thought that we were more properly the Fathers, who stood on their shoulders, and have the advantage of seeing farther, in several respects, than they did. Perhaps scarce any man of the age had more diligently studied the scripture, or was a greater master of it. He had digested the best critics and commentators, and made a vast collection of judicious observations of his own, which appears in the pertinent and surprising use of the scripture upon all occasions, and the excellent glosses which are everywhere to be found in his writings. As he had a great reverence for the scripture himself, so he was observed to show a great zeal against using scripture phrases lightly in common conversation, or without a due regard to the sense and meaning of them, as a profanation of the scripture and a great dishonour to God. Dr Bates used to say, ‘that he had heard the greatest men of those times sometimes preach a mean sermon, but never heard Dr Manton do so upon any occasion.’ This will appear the less surprising, if we consider the great care he took about them. He generally writ the heads and principal branches first, and often writ them over twice afterwards, some copies of which are now in being. When his sermon did not please him, nor the matter open kindly, he would lay it aside for that time, though it were Saturday night, and sit up all night to prepare a sermon upon an easier subject, and more to his satisfaction. If a good thought came into his mind in the night, he would light his candle, and put on his gown, and write sometimes for an hour together at a table by his bedside, though the weather was ever so cold. He was well read in all the ancient and modern history, which he made his diversion, and in which he took a particular pleasure. This, by the advantage of an excellent judgment and strong memory, made his conversation very instructing and entertaining, and recommended him particularly to young gentlemen, who used to visit him after their travels. He would discourse with them as if he had been with them upon the spot, and bring things to their remembrance which they had forgot; and sometimes, to their great surprise, show a greater acquaintance with things abroad, attained by reading, than they had got by all the labour and expense of travelling. The celebrated Mr Edmund Waller, who first refined the English poetry, and brought it to the ease and correctness in which it now appears, used to say of him, upon this account, that ‘he never discoursed with such a man as Dr Manton in all his life.’ By this means he became a great judge of men and things; and was often resorted to by persons of the greatest note and figure in the world. He took his degree of Bachelor of Arts in the year 1639, and was created Bachelor of Divinity in 1654, and by virtue of His Majesty’s letters was created Doctor of Divinity at the same time with Dr Bates, and several of the Royalists, in 1660. It was pleasantly said upon this latter occasion, that none could say of him that Creatio fit ex nihilo, having both learning and a degree before.

He was a strict observer of family religion. His method was this: he began morning and evening with a short prayer, then read a chapter, his children and servants were obliged to remember some part of it, which he made easy and pleasant to them by a familiar exposition; then he concluded with a longer prayer. Notwithstanding the labours of the Lord’s-day, he never omitted, after an hour’s respite, to repeat the heads of both his sermons to his family, usually walking, and then concluded the day with prayer and singing a psalm. His great acquaintance with the scriptures, and deep seriousness of mind, furnished him with great pertinency and variety of expression upon all occasions, and preserved a great solemnity and reverence in all his addresses to God. His prayer after sermon usually contained the heads of his sermon. He was noted for a lively and affectionate manner of administering the Lord’s Supper. He consecrated the elements of bread and wine apart; and whilst they were delivering, he was always full of heavenly discourse. He would often utter, with great fervour, those words: ‘Who is a God like unto thee, pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin?’ and illustrate, in an affecting manner, the glory of the divine mercy to the lost world, in the death of Christ; and pathetically represent the danger of those who neglect and slight their baptismal covenant, and how terrible a witness it would be against them at the day of judgment.

Monday was his chief day of rest, in which he used to attend his visitors. On his Wednesday lecture several persons of considerable quality and distinction, who went to the Established Church on the Lord’s-day, would come to hear him. One observing to him that there were many coaches at his doors on those days, he answered, smiling, ‘I have coach-hearers, but foot-payers;’ and yet he was far from the love of filthy lucre; for when it was proposed to him to bring his hearers to a subscription, he would not yield to it, but said his house should be free for all, as long as he could pay the rent of it. Some of his parishioners, and others who attended his ministry, used to present him, about Christmas, with what they collected among themselves, which was seldom above twelve or thirteen pounds. He had several persons of the first rank who belonged to his congregation, as the Countesses of Bedford, Manchester, Clare; the Ladies Baker, Trevor, the present Lord Trevor’s mother; the Lord and Lady Wharton, and most of their children, &c. By this means he had always a considerable collection for the poor at the sacrament, which was a great pleasure to him. He used to say sometimes, pleasantly, that he had money in the poor’s bag when he had little in his own. This he sometimes distributed among poor ministers, who were, many of them, at that time, in strait circumstances, as well as the poor of the congregation. Though he was a man of great gravity, and of a regular unaffected piety, yet he was extremely cheerful, and pleasant among his friends, and upon every proper occasion. His religion sat easy, and well became him, and appeared amiable and lovely to others. He greatly disliked the forbidding rigours of some good people, and the rapturous pretensions of others; and used to say he had found it, by long observation, that they who would be over-godly at one time, would be under-godly at another.

I shall conclude with this summary account of his person and character. He was of a middle stature, and of a fair and fresh complexion, with a great mixture of majesty and sweetness in his countenance. In his younger years he was very slender, but grew corpulent in his advanced age; not by idleness or excess, for he was remarkably temperate and unweariedly diligent. He had naturally a little appetite, and generally declined all manner of feasts; but by a sedentary life, and the long confinement of the five-mile-act, which, he used to complain, first broke his constitution. In short, perhaps few men of the age in which he lived had more virtues and fewer failings, or were more remarkable for general knowledge, fearless integrity, great candour and wisdom, sound judgment, and natural eloquence, copious invention, and incredible industry, zeal for the glory of God, and good-will to men; for acceptance and usefulness in the world, and a clear and unspotted reputation, through a course of many years, among all parties of men.