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 explica- tion 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 tlie 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
OF THOMAS MANTON, D.D. XIX
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 peisons of note were gathered together ; among whom was the then Duke of Kichmond. 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 he 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 com- mitted him to the Gatehouse ; only allowing him a day's respite, till his room could be got ready. This imprisonment, by the kind provi- dence 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 w^as 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, i * 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 confine- ment 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 heljied 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