"I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine" (John 17:9).
On it is a sad thing not to have a name in Christ's prayer. There is a great number left out; and if you will know who they are, they are called 'the world! It presseth us to come out of that state where we are in this danger. Men that are now worldly may be in the roll of God's election, but it is no comfort to them. 'I pray not for the world;' so it is expressed; and as long as thou art worldly thou canst take no comfort in Christ's intercession. Certainly this should be an effectual consideration with the people of God, to cause them 'to keep themselves unspotted from the world,' James 1:27. These have the benefit of Christ's prayers. A christian should never be quiet till he be clearly out of that number which is excepted. Christ hath a constant enmity and antipathy against mammon; there must be a separation from the world, and a contempt of earthly things, before we can have an interest in him. The world maketh a sport of these things; but what can be more terrible than to be shut out of Christ's prayers? He curseth those for whom he doth not pray; and that is the reason why men that are besotted with the world do always wax worse and worse.
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Thomas Manton was an English Puritan clergyman.
Born at Lydeard St Lawrence, Somerset, Manton was educated at Blundell's School and then at Hart Hall, Oxford where he graduated BA in 1639. Joseph Hall, bishop of Norwich, ordained him deacon the following year: he never took priest's orders, holding that he was properly ordained to the ministerial office. He was then appointed town lecturer of Collumpton in Devon. In the winter of 1644-1645, he was appointed to preach at St Mary's Church in the parish of Stoke Newington in Middlesex, where in 1646 he was joined by Alexander Popham as the parish's ruling elder and began to build a reputation as a forthright and popular defender of Reformed principles.
Although Manton is little known now, in his day he was held in as much esteem as men like John Owen. He was best known for his skilled expository preaching, and was a favourite of John Charles Ryle, who championed his republication in the mid-19th century. His finest work is probably his Exposition of James.