" The Puritans were not enemies to the monarchy. It is simply false to say that they were. The great majority of them protested strongly against the execution of Charles I., and were active agents in bringing back Charles IL to England, and placing the crown on his head after Oliver Cromwell's death. The base ingratitude with which they were afterwards treated, in 1GG2, by the very monarch whom they helped to restore, is one of the most shameful pages in the history of the Stuarts.
" The Puritans were not enemies to the Church of England. They would gladly have had her government and ceremonial improved, and more liberty allowed in the conduct of public worship. And they were quite right ! The very things which they desired to see, but never saw, are actually recommended at this day as worthy of adop- tion by Churchmen in every part of the land ! The great majority of them were originally ordained by bishops, and had no abstract objec- tion to Episcojjacy. Tlie great majority of them had no special dislike to liturgies, but only to certain details in the Book of Common Prayer. Baxter, one of their leaders, expressly testifies that a very few concessions in 1GC2 would have retained in the Church of England
AN ESTIMATE OF MANTON. XI
at least sixteen hundred of the two thousand who were driven out by the Act of Uniformity on Bartholomew's Day.
" The Puritans were not unlearned and ignorant men. The ^reat majority of them were Oxford and Cambridge graduates — many of them fellows of colleges, and some of them heads or principals of the best colleges in the two Universities. In knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, in power as preachers, expositors, writers, and critics, the Puritans in their day were second to none. Their works still speak for them on the shelves of every well-furnished theological library. Their commentaries, their expositions, their treatises on practical, casuistical, and experimental divinity, are immeasurably superior to those of their adversaries in the seventeenth century. In short, those who hold up the Puritans to scorn as shallow, illiterate men, are only ex- posing their own lamentable shallowness, their own ignorance of histori- cal facts, and the extremely superficial character of their own reading.
" The Puritans, as a body, have done more to elevate the national character than any class of Englishmen that ever lived. Ardent lovers of civil liberty, and ready to die in its defence — mighty at the council board, and no less mighty in the battlefield — feared abroad throughout Europe, and invincible at home while united — great with their pens, and no less great with their swords — fearing God very much, and fearing man very little, — they were a generation of men who have never received from their country the honour that they deserve. The body of which Milton, Selden, Blake, Cromwell, Owen, Baxter, and Charnock were members, is a body of which no well-informed Englishman ought ever to speak with disrespect. He may dislike their principles, if he will, but he has no right to despise them. Lord Macaulay, no mean authority in matters of English history, might well say, in his famous essay on Milton, ' We do not hesitate to pronounce the Puritans a brave, a wise, an honest, and a useful body.' — Unhappily, when they passed away, they were followed by a generation of profligates, triflers, and sceptics ; and their reputa- tion has suffered accordingly in passing through prejudiced hands. But, 'judged with righteous judgment,' they will be found men of whom the world was not worthy. The more they are really known, the more they will be esteemed."
Such was the school to which Manton undeniably belonged. Such is the truth about the Puritans. That they were not perfect and faultless, I freely admit. They said, did, and wrote many things which cannot be commended. Some of them, no doubt, were violent, fierce, narrow-minded sectarians ; some were half-crazy fanatics and enthusiasts. Yet, even then, great allowance ought to be made for
Xll AN ESTIMATE OF MANTON.
the trying circumstances in which they were often placed, and the incessant, irritating persecution to which they were exposed. And where is the great school of religious thought which is not often dis- graced by some weaker members ? With all their faults, the leaders of the party were great and good men. With all their defects, the Puri- tans, as a body, were not the men that some authors and writers in the present day are fond of representing them to have been. Those who disparage Manton because he was a Puritan, would do well to reconsider the ground they are taking up. They will find it utterly untenable. Facts, stern facts, are dead against them. They may not admire Puritanism in the abstract, but they will never give any proof that we ought not to admire, value, and study the writings of Puritan divines.
I will now proceed to offer a brief estimate of Manton's merits. For convenience sake, we will examine him in four points of view — as a man, a writer, a theologian, and an expositor of Scripture. Under each of these heads the reader shall have my opinion of the man whose works are at length about to be put within reach of the })ublic in a cheap and accessible form. I ask him to remember that I am no more infallible than the Pope ; but I can truly say that my opinion is the result of an acquaintance with Manton's writings of at least twenty years' standing.