Manton Sermon Highlights

We have had to read a sermon by Thomas Manton on Hebrews 11:1 ("Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen"); here are my favourite moments (number 4 is my favourite, although 7 is a close second - which is yours?):

1. "There are ... things which are only promised by God, and not yet enjoyed, that are simple matters of hope - as the general resurrection, the happiness of the glorified estate. Now faith doth as it were give a real being to them as if they were present. But then there are other things that may be enjoyed in this world, though not for the present, yet in some season; as the gracious presence of God, and his favourable returns after absence, and some estrangement, and deep affliction; these things may also be comprised in this expression, being things we hope for according to promise, and though they be absent, faith gives them a being and presence."

2. "To faith, when God is absent, yet then he is present; when he hides his face, faith can look behind the veil, and there see fatherly love, and a God of mercy."

3. "[Hope] is more than supposition and conceit. Heaven in the thoughts differs very much from heaven in our hope, as much as taste doth from sight, or longing from looking. Hope causeth rejoicing - an affection proper to present possession. Where it is anything strong, it diverts the mind from present wants and miseries and comforts us, and doth us good with the evidence of a future blessed eternal estate reserved for us in the heavens."

4. "Hope is not a presumptuous conceit, like the supposition of a beggar imagining himself to be a king, and how much power and glory it will bring to him when he is arrived to it; but like the expectation of a prince who is the undoubted heir of a crown, and knows that one day he shall possess it."

5. "Faith saith to the soul, Sit still, until thou know how the matter will be ; for God will not be at rest till he hath accomplished all that he hath spoken to thee."

6. "Faith considers whose the promises are; they are God's who is faithful and able. The faithful and almighty God, he cannot say and unsay. We have it under assurance enough if we have it under his word."

7. "As we say of an old decreipt man, such as one hath one foot in the grave, a believer hath more than one foot in heaven; his head is there; we have taken possession of it in Christ, or rather, he hath taken possession of it in our name; and as soon as we are united to Christ we are interested in this comfort, even whilst we lie groaning under pressures and miseries. Nothing but faith can unriddle this mystery, that a believer should be on earth, and yet in heaven; converse with sinners, and yet be in the company of glorified saints; or humbled with the pressures and inconveniences of the present state, yet be ascended and sit down with Christ in heavenly places."

8. "Grace is but young glory, and differs from glory as an infant doth from a man."