1 One is ' Meat for the Eater ; or, Hopes of Unity in and by Divided and Distracted Times,' on Zech. xiv. 10. The other is 'England's Spiritual Languishing, with the Causes and Cure,' on Rev. ii. 3.
- Anthony Wood mentions 'Smectymnus Redivivus,' in answer to 'The Humble Remonstrance,' Lond. 1653, which I have never seen.
^ See Preface to the Expoaition on James.
XXX MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER
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.' i
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, he 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. Per- haps 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 conver- sation, 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 con- sider the great care he took about them. He generally writ the heads and principal branches first, and often writ them over twice after- wards, some copies of which are now in being. AVhen 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,
^ Epistle to Dr Sibb's Comment on the First Chapter of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians.
OF THOMAS MANTON, D.D. XXXl
made his conversation very instructing and entertaining, and recom- mended 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 Eoyalists, in 1660.1 It was pleasantly said upon this latter occasion, that none could say of him that Creatio jit ex nihilo, having both learning and a degree before.