Manning William

Manning William, one of the Ejected Ministers, was Curate of Middleton cum Fordley, in the county of Suffolk, when the Act of Uniformity came into operation. In the "Nonconformists' Memorial" there are also accounts of John and Samuel Manning, both Clergymen, of whom tradition says, that they were brothers of William. The former was ejected from the Perpetual Curacy of Peasenhall ; and though one of the mildest, and most inoffensive of men, was several times imprisoned at Bury, Ipswich, Blithburgh, and other places, for his firm adherence to the dictates of conscience. The latter was ejected from the Perpetual Curacy of Walpole, and became the founder of the Dissenting interest in that place. William Manning, the subject of the present memoir, gathered a Nonconformist Church at Middleton, consisting chiefly of those, who had attended his ministry while he was Curate of that place. Middleton, Peasenhall and Walpole, the scenes of the ministerial labours of the three Mannings, are all situated within a short distance of each other ; and, till within a comparatively recent period, descendants of the family of Manning have continued to reside in the same neighbourhood. The Rev. Owen Manning, B. D., Prebendary of Lincoln, a well-known Unitarian, and author of "Sermons on Important Subjects," in 2 vols. 8vo., published in 1812, appears to have been in no way connected with the Mannings of Suffolk, but to have belonged to a Northamptonshire family of that name. The same may be said of the late Rev. James Manning, of Exeter, who was born in the town of Northampton.

Palmer, in his "Nonconformists Memorial," gives the following brief description of William Manning. "A man of great abilities and learning; but he fell into the Socinian principles, to which he adhered to his death, which was in February, 1711. Works. Catholic Religion, and some Discourses upon Acts x. 35, 36." Substantially the same as this is the description in Calamy's "Account" and "Continuation," except that the "Continuation" is more exact than the "Memorial," mentioning only one work. The full title is, "Catholic Religion, or the Just Test or Character of every Person that in any Nation is accepted with God ; discovered in an Explication of the Nature of the true Fear of God, and Working of Righteousness, with which the same is connected: in some Discourses upon Acts x. 35, 36, wherein several important doctrinal Truths, more immediately influential upon Practice, are plainly opened and vindicated from their too common Misunderstanding. By William Manning. 'Happy is the man that feareth alway,' Prov. xxviii. 14. London: printed for Dorman Newman, at the King's Arms, in the Poultry, 1686." That these Discourses deserve the title Catholic, appears from the following quotation from p. 29. "Whether or no there be any now in the world, out of the Church, that have not heard of Christ, that are strangers to the covenant in its pecular advantages now under the last edition of the Gospel, that be true fearers of God, (the candle of the Lord being so far extinct among them, Gal. ii. 22, 1 Thess. ii. 16,) may be a doubt ; but whether if any such there be, they shall be accepted with God cannot be doubted: for Cornelius was such a one ; the faith that he had, purified his heart and influenced his life, and he was accepted of Him; though his faith was short of what was necessary to his salvation afterward, when he had more revealed to him. Ch. xi. 14." 

It is not known that Mr. Manning published any other work, than the one entitled "Catholic Religion;" but some doubt exists upon this subject, as will appear from the following extract, which is taken from an "Account of Mr. William Manning," by the Rev. S. S. Toms, inserted in the "Monthly Repository" for July, 1817. The writer of that Account, alluding to Mr. Walker, whose pupil he was before he went to the Academy at Daventry, says, "In 1767, Mr. Walker removed from Framlingham to be Minister at Walpole, and took me and the rest of his scholars with him. He there succeeded Thomas How, who settled at Yarmouth, in Norfolk, and had been successor to the venerable John Crompton, who had been Pastor at Walpole from the beginning of the last century. After residing there with Mr. Walker about a twelvemonth, I was sent to Daventry, August, 1768, and returning to Framlingham, August, 1773, my old master became my particular friend and intimate, and on visits to him he repeatedly spoke of Mr. William Manning, and what he had heard of him from the aged in the society, who in their younger days were contemporary with him, as matter of their own knowledge, or what they had received from their seniors, all tending to establish his reputation as a scholar, a Christian, and Christian Minister, but of a heretical cast ; and it seems clear in my recollection that Mr. W. said he had been informed that Mr. W. M. published a Catechism, or summary of religious principles, doctrines and duties, but he had never been able to procure a copy of it."

It is by no means certain, that Mr. Manning's sentiments were Antitrinitarian, at the time of his ejectment. In the Discourses above mentioned, indeed, nothing is advanced concerning the nature and person of Christ, at all inconsistent with Unitarianism ; but the author's mode of expressing himself respecting the Atonement has something about it of an orthodox cast. His explanation of that doctrine, however, contains nothing to which a Unitarian could well object ; for he says, that "perfect holiness in the fear of God is the whole design of the Gospel," adding that "hereby God is honoured, and without it the design of our blessed Saviour were frustrated in his redemption of mankind, which was to retrieve and bring back the fear of God." But notwithstanding the liberal and truly catholic spirit which pervades Mr. Manning's work, it was not till within two or three years after its publication, when he became acquainted with the Rev. Thomas Emlyn, that his mind was fully awakened to the difficulties, by which the orthodox creed is surrounded. The manner in which the change in his opinions was effected is thus described by Mr. Gillingwater, in his "Historical Account of Lowestoft."—"In the year 1688, Mr. Emlyn was invited by Sir Robert Rich, one of the Lords of the Admiralty, to his house, at Rose Hall, near Beccles, in Suffolk, and was by him prevailed upon to officiate as Minister to the Dissenting Congregation at Lowestoft, which place he supplied about a year and a half, but refused the invitation of being their Pastor.—When Mr. Emlyn came first to Lowestoft, (in 1689,) he had not adopted those religious principles which afterward proved to him a source of the heaviest afflictions.—It was during his residence there that, reading Dr. Sherlock's piece upon the Trinity, he first began to entertain some scruples concerning the received doctrine in that point of faith.—Here also he contracted a close and intimate acquaintance with Mr. William Manning, a Nonconformist Minister, at Peasenhall, in this county, and corresponded with him during Mr. Manning's life. As they both were of an inquisitive temper, they frequently conferred together upon the highest mysteries of religion, and Dr. Sherlock's book upon the Trinity became a stumblingblock to both. Manning even became a Socinian, and strove hard to bring his friend into those opinions ; but Mr. Emlyn could never be made to doubt either of the pre-existence of our Saviour, as the Logos, or that God created the material world by him."

Mr. Manning's intimacy with Mr. Emlyn is noticed in the Memoirs of the latter by his son (A.D. 1746, p. xiii); and it is on the authority, and in the words of the Memoirs, that the account is given, by Mr. Gillingwater, of Mr. Manning's fruitless attempts to make Mr. Emlyn a Socinian.

In the month of May, 1691, Mr. Emlyn removed to Dublin. But the friendly intercourse which had commenced between him and Mr. Manning, when they were neighbours in the county of Suffolk, continued till the death of the latter ; and though what now remains of their correspondence has come down to us in an imperfect state, consisting principally of a few letters from Mr. Emlyn to Mr. Manning, with manuscript notes of the latter on those parts of the paper which had been left blank, it possesses great interest, as shewing the different views of the writers, on questions which were then beginning to agitate the Dissenting body.

Mr. Sollom Emlyn has preserved one of his father's letters to Mr. Manning, dated from Ireland, April 1^st, 1697. (Memoirs, p. xix.) Two other letters of Mr. Emlyn to Mr. Manning, dated October 10th, and December 5^th, 1710, were communicated by Mr. John Taylor, of Norwich, to the editor of the "Monthly Repository," and inserted in the number of that work for July, 1817. These were obtained from the worthy and venerable William Manning, Esq., of Ormesby, in the county of Suffolk,—the greatgrandson of the subject of the present Article ; and appear to have been written in London. Mr. Taylor refers to other letters, which were addressed by the Rev. William Manning to his son, at Yarmouth, with a perusal of which he had been favoured. But these being letters of condolence, on account of losses by death in his family, Mr. Taylor did not think them sufficiently interesting for insertion in the pages of the "Monthly Repository," although valuable for the sentiments of affection, resignation and piety, which run through them. The remaining portion of the published correspondence of Mr. Emlyn and Mr. Manning was inserted in the "Monthly Repository" for December, 1825, and January, February, April and June, 1826. It consists of four letters, addressed to "The Rev. WM, Manning at his house in Peasenhall, near Yoxford, Suffolk," with the substance of Mr. Manning's replies. These letters, with other papers belonging to the Manning family, had come into the possession of William Manning, Esq., of Ormesby, a descendant, in the direct male line, of the Rev. William Manning, the Ejected Minister. Mr. Manning, of Ormesby, died June 30^th, 1825, at the advanced age of ninety-three; and an obituary account of him was inserted in the "Monthly Repository" for that year (pp. 497, 498). Shortly after his death, the correspondence above alluded to was committed to the care of the Rev. Henry R. Bowles, of Yarmouth, to whom we are indebted for its preservation. 

In this correspondence, Mr. Emlyn shewed himself a firm believer in the preexistence of Christ, against which Mr. Manning strenuously contended, although he admitted that he saw much less that was objectionable in the Arian, than the Trinitarian hypothesis. In some Notes on a letter of Mr. Emlyn's addressed to himself, Dec. 23^rd, 1703, he says, "As for the equality and personal unity, (both commonly held,) the Scriptures confute it a hundred times ; but granting the inequality, or refusing the personal union especially, the confutation of the Godhead of the Son is more difficult, admitting the hypothesis of Arius for true. However the contrary may be my opinion, I am not so certain about it (the Scriptures being dark in the point between the Arian and Socinian) as I am to myself about the falseness of the common doctrine, which subverts the unity of God most high, and the simplicity of his Being, void of componeity, such as of a God-man, one subsistent with a communication of properties in the concrete person between Creator and creature in true and very speech, as consisting of the two natures as to God the Son." The concession which Mr. Manning here makes in favour of the Arian scheme, as compared with the Trinitarian, he repeats at the close of his Notes, in the following terms. "After all my arguing, I can't be so confident against the Arian as against the tritheistical Trinitarian. I have little against the former, who retain the unity of God and defend it, and think that what they give to Christ don't clash with the rights of God, only of which is my doubt."

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