Sermons Volume 2, Dedication 1 – Matthew 25
A Second Volume OF SERMONS PREACHED by the Late REVEREND and LEARNED Thomas Manton, D. D. In Two PARTS. The FIRST Containing XXVII. SERMONS ON The Twenty Fifth CHAPTER of St. MATTHEW, XLV. ON The Seventeenth CHAPTER of St. IOHN, AND XXIV. ON The Sixth CHAPTER of the Epistle to the ROMANS. PART II. Containing XLV. SERMONS ON The Eighth Chapter of the Epistle to the ROMANS, AND XL. ON The Fifth Chapter of the Second Epistle to the CORINTHIANS. WITH ALPHABETICAL TABLES To each Chapter, of the PRINCIPAL MATTERS therein Contained.
LONDON, Printed by J. Astwood for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-yard, MDC.LXXXIV.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, WILLIAM, Earl of Bedford, BARON of THORNAVGH: AND KNIGHT of the Most Noble Order of the GARTER.
My LORD,
IF the Soveraign Disposer of all things had continued the Life of the Author of the following SERMONS, he had express'd his Thankfulness for your Real and Noble Favours, by the Dedication of the best Fruits of his Studies to your Lordship: But since it hath pleased God to remove him from the Church on Earth to the Church in Heaven, I am desired by his most near surviving Relation, to comply with his Intention, by Inscribing your highly Honourable Name in the Frontispiece of this Work.
Your Lordships Esteem of the Author, and most free Kindness, plac'd him in an Eminent Station; and how faithfully he discharged his Publick Ministry for those great and most worthy Ends, the Glory of God, and the Salvation of Souls, as there is a full Testimony given by many sincere and understanding Persons of all Ranks, that were the happy Partakers of it, so it is evident to others, by the several Volumes of most useful SERMONS Printed since his Decease. These had been more Exact, and worthy of your Lordships perusal, if they had been publisht by himself: But such as they are, I doubt not but they will be very Acceptable, for the heavenly Matter contained in them.
I shall not Record here the many excellent Vertues that are Conspicuous in your Lordship, and truely adorn your Honour; but I cannot forbear to mention the Foundation of them, Sincere and Solid Piety, so clearly discovered in a most Christian Deportment under your heavy Afflictions. Surely, that Reverence and meek Submission to the high and Holy Providence of God, that humble Trust in his Mercy, which so admirably appeared in your deep Distress, was from the Divine Spirit, whose glorious Attribute is, The Comforter. I shall Earnestly pray, That God, who turneth the shadow of Death into the Morning, will be pleased alwayes to Support you with his Reviving Presence, that he will guide you by his Counsel through this Afflicting World, and bring you to his Glory. I am,
My LORD, Your Lordships very Humble and Obedient Servant, WILLIAM BATES.
To the READER.
Christian Reader,
OVR blessed Lord calling the Multitude to some account of their so free, and frequent motions in going to hear the first Gospel Preacher, John the Baptist, doth it in these terms; Matth. 11.7, 8. What went you out into the Wilderness to see? A Reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to see? A man cloathed in soft Rayment? They that wear soft Cloathing are in Kings houses. But what went ye out for to see? A Prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a Prophet. V. 11. Verily I say unto you, that amongst them that are born of Women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding, he that is least in the Kingdom of God, is greater than he. Teaching us several things by that speech, relating to the Religious action of hearing the Word, and to a true Gospel Minister. With reference to the former, (1.) That he that goeth out to hear, ought in the first place to propound to himself a due End. (2.) That men may propose to themselves in such motions very false and undue Ends, such as going to see Reeds shaken with the wind, men cloathed with soft Rayment, &c. (3.) That the true End men should propose to themselves, should be, not to hear a Philosopher, or an Orator, but a Prophet, which term signifieth a Person revealing the Will of God; (for the signification of that term is not to be restrained to one onelyonly from God revealing things to come, but publishing the Divine Will, whether relating to future things, or things before revealed; which is evident not only from the application of it to the Baptist, but to any that will consider, that Predictions of future Contingencies was the least part of any of the ancient Prophets work.) This is that true and more special End which every good man ought to propound to himself, when he goeth to hear as a Religious action, whose Object is not a meer sound, which is the Object of hearing considered as a natural Act, but of the joyful Sound. Nor can there lye any Obligation upon any, religiously to hear any thing but the will of God, which a Discourse doth not cease to be, by the addition of mans words for the Explanation or Application of any part of the divine Will, by such as God hath betrusted with that Employment, more than an Embassadors message ceaseth to be his Masters will, because delivered in his own words, thô to the Sense of his Instructions. Which thing well digested, would not only teach Ministers what, and how to preach, but the People also what, and how to hear, according to the direction of their Lord. If our End in hearing, were to tickle our Ears with a Sound, our Reason would guide us to hear such whose Language is as the voice of one that hath a Lovely Song, and can play well on an Instrument. If our end were to promove our selves in Critical Learning, or improve our Reason, the same Reason would guide us to choose to hear the best Philosophizers or Grammarians, such as best understood the Niceties of words, and varietyes of Syntax. But if our end be to hear a Prophet, one that should reveal Gods mind unto us, and to make it more intelligible, that by it we may be more improved in Knowledge, Faith, Love, Obedience, and other Habits fitting us for the Kingdom of God, and Eternal Salvation; the same reason will teach us to hear the most substantial, scriptural, and practical Sermons, that we can, as being most accommodate to the true end of our action, to which every wise man proportioneth mediate actions. And indeed all other Discourses are abusively called Preaching, and Athens were a more proper place for them, than a Preachers Pulpit.
God hath seemed to have reserved it for a great Blessing to the last age of the World, that (for ought appears to us from any Books) it hath been more fertile of such Preaching, than any since that of the Apostles. The ancient Church had Persons that did famously in their Generations, such were Chrysostom in the Greek, and Augustine in the Latine Church; but besides that they were but very few, whose reads the one and the other, must complement Antiquity at a great rate, if himself hath any judgment, and doth not say that Multitudes in the last Age have been as to Preaching greater than they. In the former are to be found many judicious Explications of Scripture, many honest and spiritual Discourses: In the latter, not these things only, but a pleasantness of Wit, and Fancy; but for plenty of Matter, clearness of Iudgment, Orderliness of Method, and many other things, they have not been a little exceeded by men of this last age. Nor is it any disparagement to them, more than it was to John the Baptist, that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven was to be greater than he; or to Christ, that the Apostles, Joh. 14.12. were to do greater things than he had done. In the middle Ages of the Church, Preaching generally was turn'd into trifling about Scholastick nicetyes; and to the very dawning of the Reformation, the Priests Texts were out of Scotus, or Aquinas; and we remember, they were not ashamed, when Luther, Melancton, &c. restored in some degree the true kind of Preaching, to petition Magistrates for the suppression of it, and a liberty to trifle still in that great work of God, with discourses upon Scotus and Aquinas. Thô Luther, Zuinglius, and others in Germany; and Mr. Calvin, Farellus, and Viret, and Beza, in France, about a hundred and fifty years since, mended this matter in a great degree; yet we all know how ill their Examples were followed: So as Mr. Perkins, who began to flourish about the year 1580. is generally judged to have been the first who amongst us restored Preaching to its true use, and taught us the true manner of it, whose Piety was followed by many; but as their Number hath vastly increased since that time (especially in the fifty or sixty years last past) so God hath seemed to pour out his Spirit upon Ministers, as to spiritual Gifts, in a more plentiful measure: Yet in very different proportions, that he might have some to feed his Lambs, as well as others to feed his Sheep. The Generality of good Preachers have made it their business to preach Christ, and the exceeding Riches of his Grace, and to study matter rather than words, upon Mr. Perkins his old Principle, Verba sequentur res. But all have not had alike fer…ile Invention, or solid Judgment, or alike Skill and Learning in Languages and Arts, &c. Some particular Persons have been blessed with them all, by which they have made Stars of the first Magnitude in the Church of God. Such, Reader, we take the Reverend Author of these Sermons to have been; in all whose Writings thou shalt find a quick and fertile Invention, governed with a grave and solid Iudgment, and the Issue of both expressed in a grave and decent Style, so as it is not easie to say, what one would desire in a Divine, that was wanting in him. He had an Heart full of Love and Zeal for God and his Glory, and out of the abundance of his Heart, his Mouth continually spake. So frequent, yet so learned and solid Preaching by the same person, was little less than miraculous. But he was a Scribe fully instructed in the things of the Kingdom of God, and like a good Housholder, was continually fetching out of the Store-house of his knowing and judicious Soul, things both old and new. He was no studyer of Words and Phrases, he abhorred such a Pedantry, and debasing the Authority of Gospel Propositions; but a grave and serious Soul, fitted with his skill in Arts, and Languages, neither ever did, nor could want Expressions, above the scorn of the most wanton Word-dressers, thó beneath the expectations of such as can be pleased with the timeableness of Paranomasiaes, or the rollings of six-footed words. He was a good, and learned, a grave and judicious person, and his Auditory never failed (thô he laboured more than the most Preachers, his constant course of Preaching being for many years Five times, and till near his End, three times a Week) to hear from him a pious, learned and most judicious Discourse. This, those who never heard him may easily believe, by his printed Commentaries and Sermons, in which we never met with any that complained for want of any thing fit for a Divine. So that he is one of those Authors, upon the credit of whose Name, not only the plainer and less intelligent sort of people, but even Scholars, may adventure to buy any Book that was his, and be assured they will see no cause to repent of the expence of their Money. His late large Folio upon the 119th Psalm is a plentiful Evidence of this; and a great part of our English World hath given their suffrage to this, by making it so scarce in so short a time, as the Price of it is inhanced above a fifth part.
We here offer a 2d Volume, of a greater Bulk (thô no greater price) which contains his Discourses upon the 25th of Matth. the 17th Chapt. of John, the 6th and 8th Chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and the 5th Chapt. of his 2d Epistle to the Corinthians, five Chapters, than which possibly in the whole New Testament there will not be found five others, more full of Gospel Doctrine, in the Knowledge of which Gods People are more concerned.
In the first, under the Parable of the Ten Virgins (five of which were wise, five foolish) our Lord represents to us the state of the Members of the Church waiting for Christs Second coming to Iudgment: Amongst whom some are sincere, some are Hypocrites, the different actions and issues of whom are excellently represented to us, and most worthy to be learned and considered. 2. VnderUnder the Parable of the Talents, we are instructed in Gods different dispensation of his Gifts to men, their different use of them, and the Account they are like to be called to about them. To which is subjoyned an Hypotuposis of the day of Judgment, fit to be continually in our Eyes and Ears.
In the second, we have our Saviours last Prayer for his Elect, as well those that to the end of the World should believe, as those who at that time did believe. It was our Lords Legacy, what good Christian desireth not a full understanding of it, that he may know what to hope, and pray in Faith for, at being first secured to him … Prayer of him whom the Father heareth alwayes?
In the 6th and 8th of the Romans are contained great Treasuries of Gospel Truth. VponUpon both (the …) many learned men have spent their labours to great advantage: But the Scripture is such a Book … never know when we fully comprehend it, and (if he may judge to whose share it fell to peruse some of those … the Reader will find some things here discovered, which he will hardly meet with elsewhere. His way of … it, is rather Dogmatical and Practical, than Polemical; yet he now and then judiciously resolveth a … But all along in the handling of it, he discovereth both an excellent Notion, and a most prefound and solid …
The last Discourses on 2 Cor. 5. look like a Cygnea-cantio: Whether they were some of his last … we cannot tell, nor can we judge it from the Subject, he being a person who was dying daily, and never so … with his Earthly Tabernacle, nor possess'd of so weak a Faith as to the House in the Heavens, as either … the former should stand longer than should be for the glory of God, or himself kept from the latter … It pleased God not to surprize him with death, but to let him see it at some distance, making its … him, before it gave him the fatal word of Arrest.
Thou will, Reader, find some things once and again spoken to, as the Text led him, but in such a … Phrase, that they have much new in them. Had this eminent Person lived to have supravised his own Note … might possibly have added or altered something: We have seen no reason to do it, but given thee his Not … they were under his hand, onelyonly when (not able to read some words in his Notes) we were forced to add a … or two for clearing the sense.
Now, Reader, what shall we say to thee, but onelyonly to quicken thee to bless God, for this Milk from the … when thou canst not have it from the Breasts, foreign. Thus Dr. Manton (thô dead) yet … God give thee, and us, an hearing Ear, and an understanding Heart. We have thus line upon line, and span… upon Precept: Let us not be barren and unfruitful. We commend these Labours and thy Soul to … Blessing, Subscribing our selves,
Thine Affectionate Servants in the Work of the Gospel,
William Bates.
Iohn Collinges.
Iohn Howe.
Aug. 1. 1684.
ADVERTISEMENT.
A Practical Exposition of the Lords Prayer. Octavo. By Tho. Manton, D. D. Sold by Jonathan Robinson at the Golden-Lion in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1684.