Thomas Manton · 2 of 60

Some Memoirs of the Life and Character of the Reverend and Learned Thomas Manton, D.D. · Part 2

In whatsoever company he was, he had courage, as became a faithful minister of Christ, to oppose sin; and upon proper occasions, to reprove sinners. Duke Lauderdale, who pretended to carry it with great respect to him, in some company where the doctor was present, behaved himself very indecently: the doctor modestly reproved him, but the duke never loved him afterward. He was once at dinner at Lord Manchester’s in Whitehall, when several persons of great note began to drink the king’s health, a custom which then began to be much in vogue, and was commonly abused to great disorders. When it came to him, he refused to comply with it, apprehending it beneath the dignity of a minister to give any countenance to the sinful excess it so often occasioned in those times. It put a stop to it at that time, and Prince Rupert, who was present, inquired who he was. Many of the Scotch nobility greatly respected him, particularly the Duchess of Hamilton, who attended his ministry. Notwithstanding the great and weighty affairs then on foot, which took up a great part of his time, he never omitted his beloved work of constant preaching, to the time of his ejection, in 1662. He then usually resorted to his own church, where he was succeeded by Dr Patrick, the late Bishop of Ely. It happened cross, that Dr Patrick receiving a scurrilous letter from an unknown person, full of reflections upon himself, had so little wisdom at that time as to charge it upon Dr Manton, in a letter to him, with very unbecoming reflections. This occasioned his not attending any more his preaching; for no man living more abhorred a base and unworthy action. Having this occasion of speaking a little to his disadvantage, I shall take the opportunity of doing a piece of justice to the memory of that learned person, who has since, by many books of devotion, and excellent paraphrases and commentaries on the scripture, as well as by his exemplary life, done so much good to the world, and deserved so well of the Christian church. It has been generally allowed, that Dr Patrick wrote the first volumes of the ‘Friendly Debate,’ in the heat of his youth, and in the midst of his expectations; which by aggravating some weak and uncautious expressions, in a few particular writers, designed to expose the Nonconformist ministry to contempt and ridicule. The design was afterwards carried on by a worse hand, and with a more virulent spirit, a method altogether unreasonable and unworthy, because it will be always easy to gather rash and unadvised expressions from the weaker persons of any party of men, and only serves to expose religion to the scorn and contempt of the profane. But Bishop Patrick in his advanced age, and in a public debate in the House of Lords, about the ‘Occasional Bill,’ took the opportunity to declare himself to this purpose: ‘That he had been known to write against the Dissenters with some warmth, in his younger years; but that he had lived long enough to see reason to alter his opinion of that people, and that way of writing; and that he was verily persuaded there were some who were honest men and good Christians, who would be neither, if they did not ordinarily go to church, and sometimes to the meeting; and on the other hand, some were honest men and good Christians, who would be neither, if they did not ordinarily go to the meetings and sometimes to church.’ A rare instance this of retractation and moderation; which I think redounds greatly to his honour, and is worthy of imitation.

But to return to the history. After he ceased to attend upon Dr Patrick’s ministry, he used to preach on the Lord’s-day evenings in his own house to his family, and some few of his neighbours; and some time after, on Wednesday mornings, when the violence of the times would allow it. Upon the increase of his hearers, he was obliged to lay two rooms into one; which yet, by reason of the number of the people, and the straitness of the place, proved very inconvenient to him, especially in hot weather, and prejudicial to his health. He had lived in that respect and good-will in the parish, that his neighbours were generally civil to him, and gave him no trouble. Only a little before his ejectment, one Bird, a tailor, a zealous stickler for the Common Prayer, complained to Dr Sheldon, then Bishop of London, that Dr Manton deprived him of the means of his salvation; meaning the use of the Common Prayer. ‘Well,’ says the bishop, ‘all in good time; but you may go to heaven without the Common Prayer.’ There was one Justice Ball, within a few doors of him, who often threatened him, and was at last as good as his word. He was sometimes in danger from the churchwardens, of which number there were always three. The Duke of Bedford having always the choice of one, took care to have him a friend to the doctor; and his well-known respect to him gave him countenance and protection from the malice of the meaner people. His meeting afterwards adjoined to Lord Wharton’s house in St Giles’s, which he allowed him the convenience of, whether he was in town or not. The good-natured Earl of Berkshire lived next door, who was himself a Jansenist Papist, and offered him the liberty, when he was in trouble, to come to his house; which it was easy to do, by only passing over a low wall which parted the gardens.

Not long after the Act of Ejectment, when the Government was forming a plot for the Presbyterians, for they had none of their own, in a debate in the House of Lords, Dr Ward, bishop of Salisbury, said, ‘It was time to look after them, when such men as Dr Manton refused to take the oaths;’ which slander was soon contradicted by Lord Chamberlain Manchester, who assured the House of the falseness of the charge; and that he himself had administered the oath to him when he was sworn one of His Majesty’s chaplains. The doctor took notice of this as very disingenuous, because, not long before, the bishop and he had met at Astrop Wells; and the bishop had treated him with great civility, and entered into particular freedoms with him. The doctor, indeed, was in his judgment utterly against taking the Oxford oath, viz., ‘That it is not lawful, upon any pretence whatsoever, to take up arms against the king; and, that we will not at any time endeavour any alteration of the government in Church or State.’ And when some few of his brethren were satisfied to take it upon an explication allowed them by the Lord Keeper Bridgman, that is, that the oath meant only unlawful endeavours, the famous Mr Gouge came from Hammersmith with a design to take it; but calling upon Dr Manton to know his opinion of it, he was so well satisfied with the reasons of his judgment, that he was perfectly easy in his mind, and never took it afterwards.

In the year 1670, the meetings seemed for some time to be connived at, and were much attended. I remember to have heard some of the worthy ejected ministers speak of this period with particular pleasure; they observed that, after the looseness and excess which followed the Restoration, the reproaches and persecutions of the Nonconformists, for several years, and the late terrible judgments of plague and fire, multitudes everywhere frequented the opened meetings, some from curiosity, and some upon better motives; and many were delivered from the prejudices they had entertained, and received the first serious impressions upon their minds. God remarkably owned their ministry at that time, and crowned it, under all their disadvantages, with an extraordinary success. Soon after this indulgence expired, the doctor was taken prisoner, on a Lord’s-day, in the afternoon, just after he had done his sermon. The door happened to be opened to let a gentleman out, at the very time the Justice and his attendants were at the door; who immediately rushed in, and went up-stairs; but finding the doctor in his prayer, they stayed till he had done, and then took the names of the principal persons. The doctor being warm with preaching, they were so civil to take his word to come to them after some convenient time. He went to them to a house in the Piazzas, where many persons of note were gathered together; among whom was the then Duke of Richmond. After some discourse, they tendered him the Oxford oath. Upon his refusing to take it, they threatened to send him to prison. It was thought they questioned their own skill to draw up a warrant which would be sufficient to hold him; and that it was afterward drawn up by the Lord Chief-Justice Vaughan. They dismissed him, however, at that time, upon his promise to come to them within two or three days; and then gave the warrant to a constable, and committed him to the Gatehouse; only allowing him a day’s respite, till his room could be got ready. This imprisonment, by the kind providence of God, was more favourable and commodious than could have been thought, or than his enemies designed, or than he expected. The keeper of the prison at that time was the Lady Broughton, who was noted for her strictness and severity in her office, though she carried it quite otherwise towards the doctor; for she allowed him a large handsome room joining to the Gatehouse, with a small one sufficient to hold a bed. For some time it was not thought prudent to admit any to come to him, but his wife and servant who attended him. It is worth notice here, that the doctor could not omit his delightful work of preaching, though to so small a congregation; which he did, according to his former custom, both parts of the Lord’s-day and once on a week-day. After some time his children, and some few friends, to the number of twelve or fifteen, were admitted to hear him preach. The Lady Broughton was highly civil and obliging, and placed a great confidence in him. When she designed to go for a little time into the country, she would have ordered the keys of the common jail to be brought to him every night; the doctor, smiling, told her that he, being a prisoner himself, could not think it proper to be the keeper or jailer to others. However, no person had the opening and shutting of the door of the house where he was but his own servant, so that he might have gone out of prison when he pleased, for any restraint he was under. When the town was pretty empty, he ventured, once with his keeper and once without, to visit his worthy friend Mr Gunston of Newington, who was agreeably surprised to see him, as he had a very high and hearty respect for him. Thus like Joseph, ‘he found favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison;’ and the ‘keeper of the prison’ would have ‘committed to his hands all the prisoners who were in the prison.’ This, it must be owned, was a milder confinement and gentler usage than many others met with in those days, who lay under long and close confinements, and suffered confiscation of goods, and banishment, and death. This Protestant persecution fell short indeed of dragooning and dungeons and galleys in France, and of the racks and tortures of the Inquisition in Spain; but that a person of Dr Manton’s worth and merit should be thought to deserve such treatment from a Government which he helped to lay the foundations of, and which he not only never injured, but had served in circumstances of danger and importance, when others of less desert and pretensions had all the opportunities of public service, and all the favour and preferment, I believe will appear shocking, at this distance, to all impartial lovers of liberty and of their country, and fix a brand for ever upon the gratitude and politics of those times.

Some time after his imprisonment, when the indulgence was renewed, he preached in a large room taken for him in Whitehart Yard, not far from his house; but there also he was at length disturbed. A band of rabble came on the Lord’s-day morning to seize him; but the doctor, having notice of it overnight, escaped their fury. Mr James Bedford was got to preach for him, who had taken the Oxford oath. When they found themselves disappointed, they were in a great rage, and took the names of several; but did not detain the minister, for their malice was levelled against the doctor. The good Lord Wharton was there, whom they pretended not to know; and upon his refusing to tell them his name, they threatened to send him to prison; but they thought better of it. The place was fined forty pounds, and the minister twenty, which was paid by Lord Wharton.

Sir John Baber, his near neighbour, and who owed all his preferment at court to the doctor’s interest there, continued his hearty friend, though a great courtier. He often visited the doctor, by which means he had opportunity of greater intelligence than most others. About this time there happened some difference among the ministers of the city, about the manner of addressing the king for his indulgence. Some contended earnestly to have it expressed more largely, and others opposed it; for though they always thought they had a right to their liberty, they feared giving any countenance to the dispensing power, or advantage to the Papists; which were things well known to be in view, and much at heart at that time. The difference came to be known at court, and there were apprehensions of ill consequences. Sir John Baber carried Dr Manton and Dr Bates to Lord Arlington’s, at Whitehall, who was then Secretary of State, it was supposed, by his order. When they were together, the king, to their great surprise, came into the room—it was thought by design. Dr Bates pressed Dr Manton to address the king for his indulgence; which he did in a few words, and with great caution; but it was kindly accepted by the king, and well approved by the ministers, when it was communicated to them; and put a happy end to their contentions about it. It was by the means of Sir John Baber that Dr Manton and Mr Baxter were invited to confer with the Lord Keeper Bridgman, about a comprehension and toleration, in the year 1668. They afterwards met with Dr Wilkins and Dr Burton. Proposals were drawn up and corrected by mutual consent; in pursuance of which the excellent Judge Hale prepared a bill to be laid before the next session of Parliament; but it was rejected upon the first motion by the High Church party. In the year 1674, Dr Manton and Mr Baxter, with Dr Bates and Mr Pool, met with Dr Tillotson and Dr Stillingfleet, to consider of an accommodation, by the encouragement of several Lords, spiritual and temporal. They canvassed several draughts, and at length all agreed in one; but when it came to be communicated to the bishops, several things in which they had agreed could not be obtained, and the whole design miscarried. So easy a thing it has ever been found for wise and sober men to adjust matters of difference, and agree upon terms of accommodation; when nothing will satisfy unreasonable prejudice, and where the lust of power, and the bias of interest, strongly lead men the other way.

When the indulgence was more fully fixed in 1672, the merchants, and other citizens of London, set up a lecture at Pinner’s Hall. Dr Manton was one of the six first chosen, and opened the lecture. He was much concerned at the little bickerings which began there in his time, and afterward broke out into scandalous contentions, and an open division at last. Mr Baxter was often censured for his preaching there; and once published a sheet upon that occasion, which he called, ‘An Appeal to the Light.’ His preaching upon these words, ‘And ye will not come unto me, that you might have life,’ in which he fully justified the great God, and laid the blame of men’s destruction upon themselves, though it was followed by another upon these words, ‘Without me you can do nothing,’ occasioned a great clamour against him among some people of which he complained to Dr Manton. The doctor, on his next turn, in the close of his sermon, pretty sharply rebuked them for their rash mistakes, and unbecoming reflections upon so worthy and useful a person. It was observed, that his reproof was managed with so much decency and wisdom, that he was not by any reflected upon for his freedom therein. He has been heard to express his esteem of Mr Baxter in the highest terms; namely, that he thought him one of the most extraordinary persons the Christian church had produced since the apostles’ days; and that he did not look upon himself as worthy to carry his books after him. This was the opinion of one who knew him with the greatest intimacy for many years, and was a great judge of true worth.

When he first began to grow into ill health, he could not be persuaded by his friends and physicians to forbear preaching for any considerable time; which had been the delightful work of his life. He was at length prevailed with to spend some time at Woburn, with Lord Wharton, for the benefit of the air. But finding little good by it, he returned to town on the beginning of the week, in order to administer the Lord’s Supper the next Lord’s-day, of which he gave notice to his people; but he did not live to accomplish it. The day before he took his bed, he was in his study, of which he took a solemn leave, with hands and eyes lift up to heaven, blessing God for the many comfortable and serious hours he had spent there, and waiting in joyful hope of a state of clearer knowledge and higher enjoyments of God. At night he prayed with his family under great indisposition, and recommended himself to God’s wise disposal; desiring, ‘If he had no further work for him to do in this world, he would take him to himself;’ which he expressed with great serenity of mind, and an unreserved resignation to the divine good pleasure. When he went to bed he was suddenly seized with a kind of lethargy, by which he was deprived of his senses, to the great grief and loss of his friends who came to visit him. He died October 18th, 1677, in the fifty-seventh year of his age, and lies interred in the chancel of the church of Stoke Newington.

Dr Bates preached his funeral sermon, who had a most affectionate esteem for him, very frequently visited him, always advised with him in matters of moment, and, for some years after his death, would weep when he spoke of him. He says of him:— ‘His name is worthy of precious and eternal memory. God had furnished him with a rare union of those parts which are requisite to form an eminent minister of his word. A clear judgment, a rich fancy, a strong memory, and happy elocution met in him; and were excellently improved by his diligent study. In preaching the word he was of conspicuous eminence; and none could detract from him, but from ignorance or envy. He was endowed with an extraordinary knowledge of the scripture; and in his preaching, gave such perspicuous accounts of the order and dependence of divine truths, and with that felicity applied the scripture to confirm them, that every subject, by his management, was cultivated and improved. His discourses were so clear and convincing, that none, without offering violence to conscience, could resist their evidence; and from hence they were effectual, not only to inspire a sudden flame, and raise a short commotion in the affections, but to make a lasting change in the life. His doctrine was uncorrupt and pure; the truth according to godliness. He was far from the guilty, vile intention to prostitute the sacred ordinances for acquiring any private secular advantage; neither did he entertain his hearers with impertinent subleties, empty notions, intricate disputes, dry and barren, without productive virtue; but as one who always had in his eye the great end of his ministry, the glory of God, and the salvation of men. His sermons were directed to open their eyes, that they might see their wretched condition as sinners, to hasten their flight from the wrath to come, and make them humbly, and thankfully, and entirely receive Christ as their Prince and all-sufficient Saviour; and to build up the converted in their holy faith, and more excellent love, which is the “fulfilling of the law:” in short, to make true Christians eminent in knowledge and universal obedience.

‘And as the matter of his sermons was designed for the good of souls, so his way of expression was proper for that end. His style was not exquisitely studied, not consisting of harmonious periods, but far distant from vulgar meanness. His expression was natural and free, clear and eloquent, quick and powerful; without any spice of folly; and always suitable to the simplicity and majesty of divine truth. His sermons afforded substantial food with delight, so that a fastidious mind could not disrelish them. He abhorred a vain ostentation of wit in handling sacred truths, so venerable and grave, and of eternal consequence. His fervour and earnestness in preaching was such as might soften and make pliant the most stubborn and obstinate spirit. I am not speaking of one whose talent was only voice, who laboured in the pulpit as if the end of preaching were the exercise of the body, and not for the profit of souls. But this man of God was inflamed with holy zeal, and from thence such expressions broke forth as were capable of procuring attention and consent in his hearers. He spake as one who had a living faith within him of divine truth. From this union of zeal with his knowledge, he was excellently qualified to convince and convert souls. His unparalleled assiduity in preaching declared him very sensible of those dear and strong obligations which lie upon ministers to be very diligent in that blessed work. This faithful minister abounded in the work of the Lord; and, which is truly admirable, though so frequent in preaching, yet was always superior to others, and equal to himself. He was no fomentor of faction, but studious of the public tranquillity; he knew what a blessing peace is, and wisely foresaw the pernicious consequences which attend divisions.

‘Consider him as a Christian, his life was answerable to his doctrine. This servant of God was like a fruitful tree, which produces in the branches what it contains in the root. His inward grace was made visible in a conversation becoming the gospel. His resolute contempt of the world secured him from being wrought upon by those motives which tempt low spirits from their duty. He would not rashly throw himself into troubles, nor, spreta conscientia, avoid them. His generous constancy of mind in resisting the current of popular humour, declared his loyalty to his divine Master. His charity was eminent in procuring supplies for others, when in mean circumstances himself. But he had great experience of God’s fatherly provision, to which his filial confidence was correspondent. I shall finish my character of him by observing his humility. He was deeply affected with the sense of his frailty and unworthiness. He considered the infinite purity of God, and the perfection of his law, the rule of duty; and by that humbling light discovered his manifold defects. He expressed his thoughts to me a little before his death. “If the holy prophets were under strong impressions of fear upon extraordinary discoveries of the divine presence, how shall we poor creatures appear before the holy and dreadful Majesty? It is infinitely terrible to appear before God, the Judge of all, without the protection of the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of Abel.” This alone relieved him, and supported his hopes. Though his labours were abundant, yet he knew that the work of God, passing through our hands is so blemished, that without appealing to pardoning mercy and grace, we cannot stand in judgment.’ This was the subject of his last public sermon, upon 2 Tim. i. 18, which was published from his notes, with the second edition of his funeral sermon.

Mr Collins, a man of a most sweet and obliging temper, as well as of great abilities and worth, on his turn to preach at the merchants’ lecture, after the doctor’s death, took great notice of it, and was much affected with the loss of so valuable a person. Good old Mr Case used to say, long before his death, that he should live to preach his funeral sermon; and he did preach upon that occasion, when he was almost dead himself, for he was above eighty years of age. His text was, 2 Kings x. 32; ‘In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short.’ After he had considered the text, he came to speak of several worthy ministers cut off by death about that time, as well as others cut off by the laws which forbade their preaching. The last he named was Dr Manton. At the mention of his name he stopped, and wept for some time before he could proceed; and then said, ‘If I had mentioned no other but Dr Manton, I might well say, that God began to cut England short;’ with other expressions of his love and esteem. He had always a high opinion of the doctor’s preaching, and would often urge him to print. When the doctor answered him that he had not time, in the midst of such constant employments, to prepare anything, with due care, for the public view; he would reply, ‘You need only send your notes to the press, when you come out of the pulpit.’ Dr Manton wrote a very ingenious and serious preface to Mr Case’s Meditations, drawn up when he was prisoner in the Tower, and published under the title of ‘Correction, Instruction;’ which is a very useful practical book upon the subject of afflictions. He also wrote a preface to the second edition of ‘Smectymnus;’ to Mr Clifford’s ‘Book of the Covenant;’ to ‘Ignatius Jourdain’s Life;’ Mr Strong’s ‘Sermons of the Certainty and Eternity of Hell Torments;’ and to the second edition, in quarto, of the Assembly’s ‘Confession of Faith,’ &c.

His works were published by several principal ministers of that time, and it will entertain the reader to see the high apprehensions they had of him, and the beautiful variety in which they represent them. They have indeed drawn their own character, as well as his, in the different turn of their mind and manner of expression. The first which came out was ‘Twenty Sermons,’ in quarto, in the year 1678. Dr Bates gives this fine and beautiful account of them: ‘The main design of them is to represent the inseparable connexion between Christian duties and privileges, wherein the essence of our religion consists. The gospel is not a naked, unconditionate offer of pardon and eternal life in favour of sinners, but upon the most convenient terms for the glory of God and the good of men, enforced by the strongest obligations upon them to receive humbly and thankfully those benefits. The promises are attended with commands to repent and believe, and persevere in a uniform practice of obedience. The Son of God came into the world, not to make God less holy, but to make us holy; and not to vacate our duty, and free us from the law as a rule of obedience, for that is both impossible, and would be most infamous and reproachful to our Saviour. To challenge such an exemption in point of right is to make ourselves gods; to usurp it in point of fact is to make ourselves devils. But his end was to enable and induce us to return to God as our rightful Lord and proper felicity, from whom we rebelliously and miserably fell, in seeking for happiness out of him. Accordingly, the gospel is called the law of faith, as it commands those duties upon motives of eternal hopes and fears, and as it will justify or condemn men with respect to their obedience or disobedience, which is the proper character of a law. These things are managed in the following sermons in that convincing, persuasive manner as makes them very necessary for these times, when some who aspire to extraordinary heights in religion, and esteem themselves favourites of heaven, yet wofully neglect the duties of the lower hemi sphere, as righteousness, truth, and honesty; and when carnal Christians are so numerous, who despise serious godliness as a solemn hypocrisy, and live in open violation of Christ’s precepts, and yet presume to be saved by him.

‘I shall only add further, they commend to our ardent affections and endeavours true holiness, as distinguished from the most refined unregenerate morality. The doctor saw the absolute necessity of this, and spake with great jealousy of those who seemed in their discourses to make it their highest aim to improve and cultivate some moral virtues, as justice, temperance, benignity, &c., by philosophical helps, representing them as becoming the dignity of our nature, agreeable to reason, and beneficial to society, and but transiently speaking of the operations of the Holy Spirit, which are as requisite to free the soul from the chains of sin as to release the body at last from the bands of death; who seldom preach of evangelical graces, faith in the Redeemer, the love of God for his admirable wisdom in our salvation, zeal for his glory, humility in ascribing all we can return in grateful obedience to the most free and powerful grace of God in Christ, which are the vital principles of good works, and derive the noblest forms to all virtues. Indeed, men may be composed and considerate in their words and actions, may abstain from gross enormities, and do many praiseworthy actions, by the rules of moral prudence, yet without the infusion of divine grace to cleanse their stained nature, to renew them according to the image of God shining in the gospel, to act them from motives superior to all that moral wisdom propounds,—all their virtues, of what elevation soever, though in a heroic degree, cannot make them real saints. As the plant-animal has a faint resemblance of the sensitive life, but remains in the lower rank of vegetables, so these have a shadow and appearance of the life of God, but continue in the corrupt state of nature. The difference is greater between sanctifying saving grace, wrought by the special power of the Spirit, with the holy operations flowing from them, and the virtuous habits and actions which are the effect of moral counsel and constancy, than between true pearls produced by the celestial beams of the sun, and counterfeit ones formed by the smoky heat of the fire.’ No doubt the proper Christian graces require the influence of the Divine Spirit, and are the effect of nobler motives than mere pagan morality.