1 Anthony Wood ('Atlienaj Oxon.,' p. 600) says he was accounted in his college a hot-headed person — which is as remote from what was known to be the true character of Dr Manton as it is agi-eeable to his own. If he had not been a hot-headed writer, he would not everywhere appear so full of prejudice and spite, nor have thrown out so many rash and injudicious reflections upon the best men of the Established Church who had any degree of temper and moderation, as well as upon the Nonconformists, and reserved his kindness and tenderness to the Popishly-affected and Nonjurors.
2 Mr Wood, uhi supra, says he became a preacher, though not in holy orders, at Culliton, in Devonshire ; and afterwards, that he took orders at Westminster, from Thomas, Bishop of Galloway, in the beginning of 1660. He seems to suppose that he had preached without orders all that time, when he was certainly ordained by Bishop Hall before he was twenty. And though he was ordained only to Deacon's orders, he never would submit to any other ordination. His judgment was, that he was properly ordained to the ministerial office, and that no power on earth had any right to divide and parcel it out.
OF THOMAS MANTON, D.D. ix
parts and growing hopes. Here he neither wanted work, nor will to perform it, for he was in the vigour of his youth, and applied himself to it with great diligence and pleasure, for which he was remarkahle all his life. About this time he married Mrs Morgan, who was a daughter of a genteel family of Manston, in Sidbury, Devon, and not Mr Obadiah Sedgwick's daughter, whom he succeeded in Covent Gar- den, as Mr Wood mistakes it. She was a meek and pious woman, and though of a weak and tender constitution, outlived the doctor twenty years, who was naturally hale and strong.
He had not been above three years in the ministry, before he had his first settlement, which was at Stoke Newington, in Middlesex, near London. He was presented to this living by the Honourable Colonel Popham, in whom he had a most worthy and kind patron ;^ and was highly honoured and esteemed by him and his religious lady. It was here he began and finished his excellent exposition of the Epistle of James on his week-day lectures, which he carried on with- out an assistant, besides his constant preaching both parts of the Lord's- day. This exposition has been thought by good judges to be one of the best models of expounding Scripture, and to have joined together with the greatest judgment the critical explication and prac- tical observations upon the several parts. Some time after, he went through the Epistle of Jude. This, though excellent in its kind, is not so strictly expository, but more in a sermon way, which he says ■ was more in compliance with the desires of others than with his own judgment. This was almost finished while he continued at Newing- ton, and was dedicated to the Lady Popham. It is worth observing with what respect and sense of obligation he treats the colonel and his lady, and — so contrary to the modern modish way of address — with what faithfulness at the same time he warns them of their temptations and danger. I shall only give the reader a taste of his spirit and ex- pression in his younger years, ' By this inscription,' says he to the colonel, ' the book is become not only mine, but yours. You own the truths to which I have witnessed ; and it will be sad for our account in the day of the Lord, if, after such solemn professions, you and I should be found in a carnal and unregenerate state. Make it your work to honour him who has advanced you. The differences of high and low, rich and poor, are only calculated for the present world, and cannot outlive time. The grave takes away the civil differences ; skulls wear no wreaths and marks of honour ; the small and great are there ; the servant is free from his master. So at the day of judgment I saw the dead, both great and small, stand before the Lord. None can be exempt from standing before the bar of Christ. When the civil difference ceases, the moral takes place ; the distinction then is, good and bad, not great and small. Then you will see that there is no birth like that to be born again of the Spirit, no tenure like an interest in the covenant, no estate like the inheritance of the saints, no magistracy like that whereby we sit at Christ's right hand judging angels and men. How will the faces of great men gather blackness, who now flourish in the pomp and splendour of an outward estate, but then shall become the scorn of God, and of saints and angels —
' See ' Dedication to the Epistle of James.' VOL. I. 6
X MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER
and these liuly ones shall come forth and say, " Lo, this is the man who made not God his strength, but trusted in the alaundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness ! " Wealth and power are of no use in that day, unless it be to aggravate and increase the judgment. Many who are now so despicable and obscure that they are lost in the tale and count of the world, shall then be taken into the arms of Christ ; he will not be ashamed to confess them before men and before his Father — " Father, this is one of mine." So also in heaven there are none poor ; all the vessels of glory are filled up. If there is any difference in degree, the foundation of it is laid in grace, not in greatness. Greatness hath nothing greater than a heart to be willing, and a power to be able, to do good. Then it is a fair resemblance of that perfection which is in God, who differs from man in nothing so much as in the eternity of his being, the infinite- ness of his power, and the unweariedness of his love and goodness. It is a fond ambition of men to sever these things. We all affect to be great, but not good ; and would be as gods, not in holiness, but in power. Nothing has cost the creature dearer : it turned angels into devils, and Adam out of Paradise. You will bear with my plainness and freedom — other addresses would neither be comely in me nor pleasing to you. Our work is not to flatter greatness, but, in the Scripture sense, not in the humour of the age, to level mountains.'