later, Manton, with Baxter and Bates, met Tillotson and Stillingfleet, 'to consider of an accommodation.' A draft was agreed upon and laid before the bishops, who rejected it. About 1675 his health failed. A visit to Lord Wharton's country seat at Woburn did him little good. He fell into a lethargy painful to the many friends who visited him, and died 18 Oct. 1677, in the fifty-seventh year of his age. He was buried in the chancel of St. Mary's, Stoke Newington, on 22 Oct. His funeral sermon was preached by William Bates (printed London, 1678). John Collinges [q. v.] preached at the merchants' lecture, and Thomas Case [q. v.], then above eighty, also commemorated his death. 'Words of Peace,' Manton's dignified and spiritual utterances on his deathbed, was published as a broadside a month or two after.
Manton was the most popular of the presbyterians, and used his influence 'for the public tranquillity,' Bates says' his prudent, pacific spirit rendered him most useful in these divided times.' According to Neal, he was 'a good old puritan, who concerned not with the politics of the court,' only with its religion. He made no enemies. His portrait, engraved by White, is prefixed to most of his works. His place was, above all, in the pulpit. Archbishop Ussher called him 'a voluminous preacher,' and the six folio volumes published ; after his death contain 689 sermons. Lord ; Bolingbroke, writing to Swift (Swift, Letters, ed. 1767, ii. 172), says: 'Manton taught my youth to yawn, and prepared me to be a high churchman, that I might never hear him read or read him more,' Besides the public occasions mentioned above, Manton preached the second sermon to the Sons of the Clergy, several times before the lord mayor and aldermen at St. Paul's, and took part in the morning exercises at Cripplegate and elsewhere.
Manton married Mary Morgan of Sidbury, Devonshire, who survived him twenty years. They had several children. A daughter Ann married a Mr. Terry, and died 16 March 1689. Some commemorative verses by her; nephew, Henry Cutts, are to be found in 'Advice to Mourners, &c, a Sermon long since preached by J. Manton,' published by Matthew Silvester, 1694, with a short account of the two wives of Mr. Terry. A son Thomas was baptised at Stoke Newington 7 Oct. 1645, and a son James was buried there 18 June 1656. Another son, Nathaniel, born 4 March 1657, was a bookseller at the Three Pigeons in the Poultry (see note at end of Preface to vol. iv. of the folio edition of his sermons). Another daughter, Mary, was born 9 Dec. 1658.
Dr. Manton's extremely valuable library was sold at his house in King Street, Covent Garden, 25 March following his death. The catalogue was the fourth printed. A copy, with the prices in manuscript, is in the British Museum Library.
Manton published: 1. 'Meate out of the Eater, &c.,' London, 1647. 2. 'England's Spirituall Languishing, &c.,' London, 1648, Both fast sermons preached before the commons. 3. 'A Practical Commentary, or an Exposition, with Notes, upon the Epistle of James,' London, 1651; reprinted 1653, 1657, 1840, 1842, and 1844. 4. 'The Blessed Estate of them that Die in the Lord,' London, 1656. 5. 'A Practical Commentary on the Epistle of Jude,' 1658, being weekly lectures delivered at Stoke Newington. 6. 'Smectymnuus Redivivus,' with a preface of his own, being a reprint of the 1641 edition (see Calami), 1669. He also wrote a number of prefaces or recommendatory epistles to the works of Case, Chetwynd, Clifford, Hollingworth, Gray, Strong, Sibbes, and others.
Immediately after Manton's death Bates published a volume of his sermons, with portrait, 1678, 4to. A second was published by Baxter, 1679, 8vo. 'A Practical Exposition of the Lord's Prayer' appeared in 1684, and 'Several Discourses tending to Promote Peace and Holiness among Christians,' 1686; 'Christ's Temptation and Transfiguration Practically Explained and Improved,' 1685 ; 'A Practical Exposition on Isaiah liii.,' 1703. Vol. i. of the folio complete edition of his sermons, with memoir by William Harris, D.D. [q. v.], and 190 sermons on Psalm cxix., appeared in 1681; 2nd edit., corrected, 1725; a later edition, in 3 vols. 8vo, 1842. Vol. ii. pt. L, dedicated to "William, earl of Bedford, by Bates, Collins, and Howe, 1684; pt. ii., dedicated to Lord and Lady Wharton, by Bates and Howe, 1684. Vol. iii. pt. i., containing a treatise on the Lord's Supper, 1688. Vol. iv. 1693. They are supplied with a curious but most complete index. 'The Morning Exercises at Cripplegate, St. Giles, and Southwark,' edited by Nichols, 6 vols. 1844, contains four of Manton's sermons.
