Page images
PDF
EPUB

preached in a large room in White-hart-yard; but there he was at length disturbed. A band of rabble came on the Lord's day morning to seize him, but having timely notice he escaped their fury. Mr. Bedford who had preached for him, they dismissed, but took the names of several present. Lord Wharton was there, whom they pretended not to know, and on his refusing to tell his name threatened to send him to prison, but they thought better of it. The place was fined 40l. and the minister 20l. which his Lordship paid. Sir John Baber, who owed all his court preferment to the Dr.'s interest, continued his hearty friend. When the Indulgence was confirmed in 1672, the merchants set up a Lecture & Pinners Hall, which was opened by Dr. Manton, who espoused the cause of Mr. Baxter, when a great clamour was raised against him, for a discourse which he had delivered there, on John v. 40. and at his next turn sharply rebuked those who had joined in it. He thought Mr. Barter one of the most extraordinary persons the church had produced since the apostles days, and was known to have said, that he did not look upon himself as worthy to carry his books after him.

When his health began to decline, he could not be per suaded long to desist from his delightful work of preaching but he at length consented to spend some time with Lord Wharton at Wooburn. Finding, however, but little benefit, he soon returned, and gave notice of his intention to administer the Lord's supper, but did not live to perform that ser vice. The day before he took to his bed, he was in his study, of which he took a solemn leave, blessing God for the many pleasant and useful hours he had spent there, and expressing his joyful hope of a state of clearer knowledge and higher enjoyments. At night he prayed with his family, under great indisposition, and recommended himself to God's wise disposal; desiring, "that if he had no further work for him to do, he would take him to himself." When he went to bed he was seized with a lethargy, to the great grief and loss of his friends who came to visit him, as it deprived him of all capacity for conversing with them. He died Oct. 18, 1677, in the 57th year of his age, and was buried in the chancel at Stoke Newington.

Dr. Manton was a man of considerable learning, and had a fine collection of books. His great delight was in his study. He had carefully read the Fathers and Schoolmen, and had well digested the best commentators on Scripture. He was

also

also well read in ancient and modern history, which rendered his conversation entertaining and instructive. He would discourse with young gentlemen who had travelled, so as to surprise them with his superior knowledge of things abroad, which he talked of as if he had been on the spot. In this view, Waller the poet used to say, that he never met with his equal.-He took great pains with his sermons, so as sometimes to transcribe them more than once; and if one that he had composed did not please him, he would sit up all Saturday night to make another. If a good thought came into his mind in the night, he would light his candle, and sometimes write for an hour. Dr. Bates used to say, that though he sometimes heard the greatest men deliver a mean discourse, he never heard such a one from Dr. Manton.-Dr. Harris has given a particular account of his writings, with the time and occasion of them; also the encomiums of different persons. We shall only observe here, that the bookseller offered him 60 1. for his Sermons on the 119th Psalm, or The Paris edition of the Councils, in zo vols. fol. and that the Dr. paid him the money for them, because he found it too great an interruption to his other work to transcribe these discourses; so that after his death they were published from his notes, as many others of his sermons were; which occasioned them to appear under a great disadvantage.

Several Funeral Sermons having very lately fallen into my hands, I have extracted from them some additional account of the following ministers.

Mr. WILLIAM WHITAKER. Page 157.

Dr. Annesley, in the sermon preached at his funeral, on Zech. i. 5, 6. besides what Dr. Calamy has quoted from it, mentions the following particulars. In the fifteenth year of his age he was admitted in Emanuel College, whose first tutor gave him this direction, which he constantly observed; viz. To note down every day what and how much he studied, that in after times he might repent of what time he had lost. While he was a pupil, he was, as it were, a tutor to many tutors in the college; divers of the fellows desiring, and receiving, directions from him in the oriental tongues. Dr. Holdsworth, then master of the college, took such notice of him, while a fresh man, that he gave him the keys of the college library, and appointed him tasks in translating Eustathius

Eustathius upon Homer, wherein he did so much as is scarcely to be imitated. ... ... For his time he was one of the greatest ornaments and tutors of the university. I may say of him something like what was said of Moses, Acts vii. 22. He was skilled in all necessary learning, and in all he undertook he was a workman that needed not to be ashamed. His deserved fame is not confined within the narrow seas: you cannot shew me throughout England such a Schola illustris for foreign divines; his house was for many years full of candidates in divinity, who returned accomplished for their work. In the 24th year of his age he entered into the ministry, and how he hath fulfilled it you all know. He took the counsel of the apostle to Timothy, Give thyself wholly to them. When he preached his farewell sermon to his people in the country, from whom he was torn away, by the determination of the ministers in the city, there was not only a flood of tears, but the lamentations of many were so loud, that his own voice could scarcely be heard.-His presence was so refreshing to us (his brethren) that whenever he came among us we were all ready to rise up and call him blessed."

ROGER DRAKE, D. D. Page 180.

66

Dr. Annesley, in his preface to his funeral sermon for Mr. William Whitaker (which it is evident Dr. Calamy had seen) mentions his having delivered the substance of that sermon some years before, on the occasion of the death of his intimate and most valuable friend, Dr. Drake, of whom he there gives the following account. Consider him every way, and his worth was inexpressible. For his personal graces, during forty years standing in Christ, he was eminently blameless..... For his relative piety, his way of instructing, reproving, convincing and counselling every person in his family, severally and privately in his study, as occasion required, praying with them ere he dismissed them; I never heard of the like. For his worldly incomes, he ever Jaid by the tenth part for the poor, before he used any for himself. For his ministerial excellencies, . . . . these are well known to those that knew him, but will be scarcely credible to those that knew him not; and therefore I say so little of them. Those that heard him pray upon any extraordinary occasion, must be forced to acknowledge, his praying by the spirit was not fanatical. His writings will be esteemed while there are books in the world, for the stream of piety and learning that runs through his sacred chronology. But the eleva

....

[graphic][merged small]

Rev. William Brates, DD.

from a Painting in the Possession of the Author.

Published by Button & 3on, Paternoster Row.

« PreviousContinue »