Complete Works of Thomas Manton, D.D. Vol. I.

His removal from Newington to Covent Garden was occasioned by the great age of Mr Obadiah Sedgwick, who was now disabled for his work. The people growing uneasy, several worthy persons were proposed for the place, but Mr Sedgwick would not be prevailed with to resign till Mr Manton was mentioned, and to that he readily yielded. He was presented to the living, with great respect and satisfaction, by his noble and generous patron, the Earl, afterwards Duke, of Bedford, who greatly esteemed him to his dying day, and sent him, as a mark of his respect, a key of the garden which then belonged to Bedford House, either to walk in it at his leisure, or as a convenient passage to the Strand. He had in this place a numerous congregation of persons of great note and rank, of which number was oftentimes the excellent Archbishop Usher, who used to say of him, that he was one of the best preachers in England,' and that he was a voluminous preacher;' not that he was ever long and tedious, but because he had the art of reducing the substance of whole volumes into a narrow compass, and representing it to great