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Thomas Manton
Thomas Manton (1620–October 18, 1677) was an English Puritan preacher, theologian, and author, renowned for his eloquent sermons and extensive biblical commentaries during a tumultuous era of religious and political upheaval. Born in Laurence Lydiard (now Lydiard St. Lawrence), Somerset, to a poor curate father of the same name, Manton was educated at Blundell’s School in Tiverton and Hart Hall, Oxford, where he matriculated at 15 in 1635 under Ralph Button’s mentorship. Ordained a deacon at 19 in 1639—unusually young—he began preaching at Sowton, Devon, and by 1640 was lecturing at St. Mary’s, Colyton, gaining notice for his expository skill. Manton’s preaching career flourished as he moved to London, serving St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, from 1644 to 1656, where he drew crowds with sermons later published as practical divinity classics. A Presbyterian, he supported the Solemn League and Covenant, preached before Parliament, and served as a Westminster Assembly scribe and trier of ministers under Cromwell. After the Restoration, he was appointed a royal chaplain in 1660 but ejected in 1662 under the Act of Uniformity, refusing to conform. Undeterred, he preached privately in his St. Paul’s home and, after 1670, at a Pinners’ Hall lectureship and a secret meeting house, enduring brief imprisonments in 1670 and 1675. His 22-volume Works, including commentaries on James, Jude, Psalm 119, and Christ’s temptations, reflect his meticulous, heart-stirring style.
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Sermon Summary
Thomas Manton preaches about how Christ, as the captain of our salvation, was made perfect through sufferings, experiencing all trials and hardships that His servants may face, including poverty, forsakenness, and pain, allowing Him to empathize and pity us in our struggles. By taking on our nature and miseries, Christ offers a pledge to help and have compassion on us, having a deep understanding of the human experience and the challenges we encounter in this world.
Experience
"For it became him [the Father].... in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings" (Heb. 2:10). Christ hath had experience of all trials whereinto any of his servants can fall, poverty, forsaking of friends, exile, imprisonment, hunger, nakedness, watching, weariness, pain of body, heaviness of heart, desertion as to sense, wrath and curse of God. Christ hath carried his feeling with him into heaven; he knew what poverty meaneth, what trouble of conscience, what heaviness of spirit meaneth. Christ could not so experimentally pity us, so feelingly pity us, if he were not like us in all things; his heart was entendered by experience, as a man that hath felt the gout and felt the stone. Israel knew the heart of a stranger; Christ knew the heart of a man that is left to the world's frowns and snares. He took a communion of our nature and miseries, as a pawn and pledge that he will pity us and help us.
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Thomas Manton (1620–October 18, 1677) was an English Puritan preacher, theologian, and author, renowned for his eloquent sermons and extensive biblical commentaries during a tumultuous era of religious and political upheaval. Born in Laurence Lydiard (now Lydiard St. Lawrence), Somerset, to a poor curate father of the same name, Manton was educated at Blundell’s School in Tiverton and Hart Hall, Oxford, where he matriculated at 15 in 1635 under Ralph Button’s mentorship. Ordained a deacon at 19 in 1639—unusually young—he began preaching at Sowton, Devon, and by 1640 was lecturing at St. Mary’s, Colyton, gaining notice for his expository skill. Manton’s preaching career flourished as he moved to London, serving St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, from 1644 to 1656, where he drew crowds with sermons later published as practical divinity classics. A Presbyterian, he supported the Solemn League and Covenant, preached before Parliament, and served as a Westminster Assembly scribe and trier of ministers under Cromwell. After the Restoration, he was appointed a royal chaplain in 1660 but ejected in 1662 under the Act of Uniformity, refusing to conform. Undeterred, he preached privately in his St. Paul’s home and, after 1670, at a Pinners’ Hall lectureship and a secret meeting house, enduring brief imprisonments in 1670 and 1675. His 22-volume Works, including commentaries on James, Jude, Psalm 119, and Christ’s temptations, reflect his meticulous, heart-stirring style.