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[WE were just preparing to draw up a memoir of the late venerated pastor of the church assembling in the King's Weigh House Meeting, Eastcheap, when we had put into our hands the following excellent sketch, from the pen of his eldest son, the Rev. John Clayton, of the Poultry chapel. We instantly resolved to give it without alteration to our readers, as more likely to meet the views of the family and the public than any thing that we could supply. It is printed as an appendix to the funeral sermon preached by the Rev. John Clayton for his revered father, from the words of the psalmist, Psa. xci. 16.

EDITOR.]

The Rev. John Clayton was born on October 5th, in the year of our Lord 1754, at Clayton Green, a hamlet near Chorley, in Lancashire. He received the first rudiments of education at the grammar school at Layland, a neighbouring village; and at the age of fourteen was bound as an apprentice to a respectable chemist at Manchester. Though diligent in business, yet he

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never felt any strong predilection for it, and often occupied his leisure hours in reading books of biography and history, which he obtained from his employer. Soon after he had entered his eighteenth year, he came up to London to visit his sister, Mrs. Baker, afterwards the wife of the Rev. Anthony Crole, who was for many years the approved and useful pastor of the church latterly assembling in Founders' Hall, Lothbury. During his visit to the metropolis, he was taken by his excellent relative to hear the Rev. William Romaine, who preached at St. Ann's church, Blackfriars; and though previously he was in a state of perfect ignorance of the great essentials of Christianity, yet, to use his own language, so plain and simple were the statements of the clergyman, so pathetic his appeals, and so powerful was the influence accompanying his discourse, that, when he left the church, he had a clear knowledge of the way of salvation through Christ Jesus." At this crisis of his experimental history he suffered much conflict in his mind,

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being very anxious to retire from secular business, and devote himself to the service of God. Divine Providence soon opened a way for his escape; and his wishes to enter into the ministry having become known to the late Countess of Huntingdon, she sent for him, and placed him in the college which she supported at Trevecca, in South Wales. Here he made considerable progress in useful knowledge, but was so filled with solemn and awful convictions of the responsibility of the Christian ministry, that on two occasions he expressed his desire to her ladyship to withdraw from the institution in which by her kindness he had been fixed. She ceased not, however, to encourage him by her letters and counsel, and he passed through the course of his studies with honour and advantage. Possessing a remarkably fine person, with which was connected an impressive and graceful delivery, he was soon called to exercise himself in preaching; but he was the subject of such nervous excitement and apprehension that, on more than one occasion, he stopped in the midst of his discourse, burst into a flood of tears, and abruptly closed the service. By degrees, however, as he continued to itinerate among the surrounding villages, he acquired more confidence, and he was sent to preach at the Countess's chapels at Plymouth, Tonbridge Wells, and Brighton. The acceptance of his labours was so highly appreciated by his noble patroness, that she became desirous of his ordination in the Episcopal Church, and wrote to one of the bishops on the subject; to which she received a reply that, if Mr. Clayton was prepared to submit to a certain course, he should have no objection to comply with her ladyship's proposal. It is a singular fact that, when the candidate was actually conveying a communication from this prelate to another of his brethren on the bench, he met with an individual who put into his hands a copy of Towgood's "Letters on Dissent." He perused the work with avidity and

earnestness, and at length resolved to associate himself with Nonconformists. At this period, Mr. Clayton fell into the company of Sir Harry Trelawney, who had seceded from the Church of England, and had become the minister of a Congregational church, near to his estate in Cornwall. Soon afterwards he was invited to become an assistant to Sir Harry, and their conversation frequently turned on the subject of ecclesiastical politics, which tended to confirm his determination to cast in his lot among Protestant Dissenters. In the interviews which he had with the eccentric and fickle baronet, he soon discovered that Sir Harry was departing from his original views of the gospel, until he openly professed himself to be an Arian of the lowest school. This circumstance, together with the disturbed state of the family, in consequence of Sir Harry's ill-fated marriage, produced a separation; and, while arrangements were making for Mr. Clayton's retirement, a gentleman from the metropolis, (Nathaniel Fenn, Esq.,) who was travelling on business, went to hear him at West Looe, and on returning to London, mentioned his name to the deacons of the church assembling in the King's Weigh House Meeting, Eastcheap, which was then destitute of a pastor, in consequence of the death of the amiable and excellent Dr. Wilton. After passing through a few months of probation, he was settled over that religious society as their pastor, in the year 1778. These proceedings greatly displeased Lady Huntingdon, who wrote some strong remonstrances to him, and expressed dark forebodings as to the usefulness of his future course. Her letters (which may hereafter appear) are not only expressive, however, of her grief, but breathe most affectionate and pious wishes that her gloomy predictions might not be realized, and prove how strongly she was attached to Mr. Clayton, as one of her most interesting students, and as a promising minister of Christ.

In the year following that of his

ordination he entered into the marriage state with Miss Flower, a member of his church, and a lady of whom it is only justice to say, that her good sense, warm affections, domestic habits, agreeable manners, and fervent piety, contributed to place her on a distinguished eminence as a wife and a mother. By Mrs. Clayton he had five children, three sons and two daughters, one of the last dying in the year 1804, and one of the former in 1838, the remaining three surviving their deceased parent. After he had been at his new sphere of labour, he gradually rose into considerable popu larity, and for many years the Weigh House was crowded with a respectable and overflowing audience. Among his numerous flock he watched with steady practical consistency, and in the punctual and faithful discharge of pastoral duty. As his children grew up he devoted much time to their religious instruction, until they went to school; while there he sent frequent letters to them, replete with expressions of earnest and affectionate desire for their intellectual and moral improvement; and during the vacations, in connexion with his invaluable partner, consecrated several evenings in the week to catechetical exercises on various subjects connected with both worlds.

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It is scarcely possible to advert to this part of his domestic character without introducing to prominent view his devoted assistant in the work of education. Of her it may be truly said, that she was instant in season and out of season" in various efforts to train up her children for God. Often did she assemble the little group around her in her chamber, and bedew their heads and uplifted hands with the tears of her anxiety and devotion, travailing anew that Christ might be formed in their hearts the hope of glory. She invented fresh modes of conveying useful knowledge to their minds, directed them in the choice of books, examined them to ascertain if they had perused them to advantage, constructed sets of questions, to be answered at successive interviews, and urged them to retire for

prayer and reading at the commencement and close of every day; while she diligently seconded the usefulness and softened the rigour of some plans which her husband adopted for the cultivation of the best sentiments and principles in the understandings and hearts of her offspring. Their united efforts were especially put forth with renewed energy on the evenings of the sabbath-day, when all were expected to give an account of the sermons which they had heard, and their sons to furnish a short essay or biographical sketch from Scripture narratives and history. So bent were they on forming the characters of their children to excellence, that they left no means untried to effect the object on which their hearts were set. To this they addicted themselves in the morning, in the evening, and at all hours which they could command during the day; and though often censured for some of their plans of seclusion and laborious assiduity, yet, regardless of the opinions of others, they pursued their educational projects with untiring zeal, always associating fervent prayer with their parental exertions, until they had the satisfaction to witness strong indications that their immediate descendants would tread in the footsteps of parents who had consecrated themselves, with such deep and intense interest, to their present and everlasting welfare.

During the period of forty-nine years Mr. Clayton continued to officiate at the Weigh-House with the most undeviating regularity, until some intimations of advancing age suggested to him that the time was come to relax his labours and to seek assistance. For a short time he ceased to preach on the Lord's-day afternoon, but being fully aware of the difficulty and delicacy of a collegiate ministry among Congregational Dissenters, he resolved to resign his pastoral charge, which he did, amidst many reciprocal expressions of affection between himself and his attached flock. Though relieved from the regular discharge of his ministerial functions, yet he continued to officiate

occasionally at different places of worship, and particularly at the chapel in the village of Upminster, to which he had retired. In the year 1836, he sustained the loss of his inestimable partner, who was gathered into the heavenly garner as a sheaf of corn fully ripe and in season; and in the year 1838, he suffered a great shock in the sudden demise of his youngest son, the Rev. William Clayton, the indefatigable chaplain to the Protestant Dissenters' Grammar School at Mill Hill. These events produced a very perceptible impression upon his entire frame, and from the period of their occurrence he frequently complained of "a general weakness, such as he had never felt before." He continued, however, in the enjoyment of comparatively good health till the winter of 1842, when some dropsical symptoms became apparent, and which increased till the time of his decease. On the sacramental sabbath in February he appeared for the last time in the pulpit, and a supply having failed, he delivered a short and pathetic discourse on that text, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world," affectionately urging his hearers to betake themselves to the atonement of Jesus, as the only foundation of their hopes for eternity. While his disease was making slow, but certain progress, his spirit was obviously meetening for that heaven to which he aspired. He familiarized himself with the admonitory infirmities, which, he said, were "the inexorable messengers to warn him of the approach of death;" and often expressed his gratitude that they "did not subject him to acute pain, nor hinder him in the employment of those private means of grace, through which he could still hold communion with his Saviour and Lord." He conversed much with his relatives and friends on the goodness and mercy of God, which had followed him all the days of his life. He expatiated largely on his vast obligations to that Divine Saviour in whom he reposed his confidence, and whom he frequently en

treated" to release him from the prison of the flesh, and receive him into the everlasting arins of his mercy." "I am thankful, also," he said, "that I usually enjoy much peace of mind; not, I trust, the calm of indifference or delusion, but derived from the righteousness and sacrifice of the Son of God." When one of his kindred offered him a congratulation on the serenity of his mind and firmness of his hopes, he lifted up his voice and added, "Yes; but I am no hero on a dying bed. Christ is all my hope; I am nothing without him;" and then, with tears of mingled love and humiliation, he quoted the lines of one of his favourite hymns

"Jesus! thy blood and righteousness

My beauty are, my glorious dress," &c. His faculties remained unbroken during his protracted indisposition; his devotional spirit was uniform; his affection constantly breathing itself forth towards his surrounding children and attendants, while he poured out brief and importunate prayers for the maintenance of piety among his descendants; for the prosperity of the pastoral charges of his successor and his sons; for the little flock in the village of his residence, and for the advancement of the kingdom of the Redeemer throughout the world. The last few days of his mortal existence he spent in the repeated expression of kind wishes for those around him, and in holy aspirations to his Lord and Master, whose coming he ardently desired, until, fully satisfied with the lovingkindness of the Lord in the land of the living, and in the spirit of the ancient patriarch, who said, "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord," on the 22nd of September, 1843, at five minutes past nine in the morning, his spirit was released from the body, and received up into glory.

Thus passed the holy life, and thus took place the peaceful death of the subject of this memoir. He was the last of that valuable body of labourers in the church of Christ who were sent into the ministry from the college at

Trevecca, by the instrumentality of the eminently pious and devoted Countess of Huntingdon. He flourished in times of an extraordinary character; and if life and health be spared, his sons may perhaps furnish the public with a more extended account of the part which he took in the opinions and transactions of the day in which he lived and laboured. There are some few yet on this side the grave, who can attest the accuracy of the foregoing narrative, and who, it is believed, can confirm the justice of the estimate which the writer has formed of its revered subject. The filial hand, however, which pens these lines might surely be excused, even if it should have planted a flower of too bright a colour at the foot of the paternal tomb. Peace be to the ashes of the departed man of God! "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, for they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them!"

To conclude, with a few reflections drawn from the preceding remarks and narration.

I would, in the first place, inquire if there are any here, who, though their lives have been protracted to old age, still remain ignorant of God and of the great salvation? My fellow-sinners, whatever be the circumstances in which you are placed, you are objects of the deepest commiseration. Tell me not that you are in the enjoyment of health, and can boast of a fine constitution; tell me not that you have been spared till you have reached lofty attainments in science, and acquired extensive opulence; tell me not you have won many honours in the cabinet, the legislature, the field of arms, or the departments of the useful arts. Are you still strangers to penitence for sin, to faith in the Saviour, to a new heart, and a holy life? Then you are of all men the most wretched; and if you hasten not to take refuge in the mercy of God and the mediation of his Son, you will go down to your grave laden with an insupportable weight of guilt, and sink the faster and deeper into the abyss of perdition. Linger not, then, a moment.

Flee to Him who is the exclusive, the all-sufficient, the benevolent Saviour. Call upon him with all the strength which yet remains, "Son of David, have mercy on me!" and who can say but that the darkness of your prospects shall pass away, and that "at eventide it shall be light?"

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In the next place, let me urge those who have been made partakers of this salvation, to remember their obligations to undeserved mercy and grace. them exemplify the influence of it in their tempers, conversation, and lives. Let them avail themselves of the opportunities which they can embrace, to tell others what a Saviour they have found. Let them confide in Him whose grace can preserve them through faith unto salvation, and live in the realizing anticipation of that crisis, when they shall join with the collective company of the just, in the inexpiring song of gratitude, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, for he has redeemed us to God by his blood."

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There may be some in this congregation, who have just commenced their travels to Zion, and who are struggling with temptations and difficulties, which seem as though they would arrest their progress. Let them look at the course and experience of the aged pilgrim, at whose history we have just glanced. He was upheld in the early, and in every subsequent stage of his arduous career, and could say, when he had arrived at more than fourscore years, "O God, thou hast taught me from my youth, and hitherto have I declared thy works. I am a wonder unto many, but thou art my strong refuge." And when he reached the vale of death, the grace of Jesus Christ made it "to blossom as the rose," and gave to it "the excellency of Carmel and Sharon." O ye who belong to "the house of Israel, trust in the Lord; he is your help and your shield." He will never leave nor forsake those who confide in his covenant love, and the exceedingly great and precious promises of his word. Hold fast, then, your confidence even to the end, till you shall have crossed