SALTERS-HALL.-English Presbyterian. and useful ministers were ejected from their stations in the church, and driven into comparative obscurity. Mr. Mayo not being able to satisfy himself in the terms of conformity, was compelled to resign his living; but as he did not receive his ministry of man, so he could not consent to lay it aside at the command of man, considering himself under a prior obligation to preach the gospel of Christ.* After the fatal act of Uniformity, he experienced a variety of changes, till Providence fixed him in London, towards the latter end of the reign of Charles II. His first place of worship was Buckingham-house, College-hill; but after the Revolution, his people built the present meeting-house at Salters'Hall. Here he had a large and flourishing congregation; and continued many years an affectionate and useful preacher. His discourses were solid and substantial, calculated at once to affect and instruct his hearers. The subjects he handled embraced the most important topics of revealed religion. Christ crucified was the continual theme of his discourses, from which he derived the strongest motives to practical religion. Mr. Taylor notices these excellencies in his preaching that it was methodical, clear, and derived naturally from his text. The success he met with was very great; as appeared abundantly in the lives and conversations of his hearers. Mr. Mayo was a man of great learning and ingenuity; and well skilled in polemical and practical divinity. As he was a firm friend of peace and union, so he pursued them with unwearied zeal in the midst of discouragements. He possessed great sweetness of natural temper, and in the whole of his conduct discovered remarkable sincerity and prudence.§ After the division in the Pinners'Hall lecture, and the establishment of a new one at Salters' SALTERS-HALL.-English Presbyterian. Hall, he was one of the first chosen to complete the numbers at the latter place.* The end of this good man, like the setting sun in a serene evening, was brilliant, and without a cloud. Though he possessed naturally a strong constitution, and enjoyed for many years, a considerable share of health, yet experience has taught us that these advantages are no security against the attacks of the last enemy. A variety of disorders eventually seized him, and issued in his death, after an illness of six weeks continuance. During this interval, his mind was serene and peaceful. To Mr. Nathaniel Taylor, who visited him, he said, "I have not, indeed, those raptures of joy which some have felt, though yet, blessed be God, I have sometimes tasted of them too, but I have a comfortable well-grounded hope of eternal life." At another time he observed, "I have had my infirmities and failings; but my heart hath been right with God as to the main, and I look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life." Again, "I know that I have passed from death unto lifeBlessed be God for our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath delivered me from the wrath to come." When the lamp of life was nearly extinguished, and he expected every moment to be his last, he expressed himself with more than ordinary cheerfulness in the words of the Psalmist, "Into thy hands 1 commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of Truth." He would often say in his sickness, "If God hath any pleasure in me, and any more work for me to do, he will raise me up; but if not, lo, here am I, let him do with his servant what seemeth him good." In this happy frame did this good man enter upon his everlasting sabbath, about five o'clock on Lord's-day morning, Sept. 8, 1695, in the 65th year of his age.† His funeral sermon was preached by Mr. Nathaniel Taylor, his assistant, on 2 Cor. Calamy's Continuation, p. 972. + Mr. Taylor's Sermon, p. 28-30. SALTERS-HALL.English Presbyterian. v. 8. For we are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Mr. Mayo left two sons in the ministry; one a Conformist, at St. Thomas's, Southwark; the other a Nonconformist, first at Kingston, and afterwards at Hackney, and Silver-street. He published several pieces, the titles of which shall be specified below. (x) NATHANIEL TAYLOR. (Y)--This eminent Divine, whom Dr. Doddridge styles, " The Dissenting South," was a native of Burbich, in Wiltshire, where his father, the Rev. Thomas Taylor, was the parochial minister, till ejected at the Restoration. This faithful confessor, though he had (x) WORKS.-1. A plain Answer to this practical Question, What Course may a Christian take to have his Heart quickened and enlarged, in the Duty of secret Prayer?-2. A Sermon in the Morning Exercise against Popery, shewing, That the Papists dangerously corrupt holy Worship, by their sinful Prayers to Saints and Angels.-3. A Sermon in the Continuation of the practical Morning Exercise, Vol. iii. shewing, What we must do to prevent and curc Spiritual Pride.-4. A Sermon in the Casuistical Morning Exercise, Vol. iv. shewing, From what Fear of Death are the Children of God delivered by Christ, and by what Means doth he deliver them from it.5. The Life and Death of Dr. Staunton. To which is added, The Doctor's Treatise of Christian Conference; and his Dialogue between a Minister and a Stranger.-6. Two Conferences: One betwixt a Papist and a Jew: The other betwixt a Protestant and a Jew. In two Letters, from a Merchant in London, to his Correspondent in Amsterdam.-7. A Letter from Leghorn. -8. A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans; in the second Volume of Mr. Poole's English Annotations.-9. The Cause and Cure of Strife and Divisions. (y) Besides this Mr. Nathaniel Taylor, there was another person of both his names, who lived at this period. The person here intended was a Clergyman of the Church of England, and in 1684, Master of the Free Grammar-School at Brigg, in Lincolnshire. In 1691, he published a Visitation Sermon, on Psa. cxxii. 6, in the title of which he appears to have been a Doctor of Divinity. There is a portrait of this person, in a clerical habit, with a broad-brimmed hat, and sitting in his school with the boys.-Noble's Continuation of Granger, vol. i. p. 106. SALTERS'-HALL.--English Presbyterian. eight children, refused considerable preferment on the ground of Nonconformity, and was a great sufferer for conscience-sake, particularly from Dr. Seth Ward, Bishop of Sarum. After his ejectment, he settled at Salisbury; but, in 1676, removed to London, where he, soon afterwards, died. His son Nathanael, he named after Nathanael Fiennes, of Newton-Tony, Esq. who had been very kind to him, as well as to several other Nonconformists in the county of Wilts.* The subject of this biographical sketch received his university learning, in conjunction with Mr. John Shower, under the very worthy and learned Mr. Edward Veal, one of the Bartholomew Confessors, and afterwards an eminent tutor in the neighbourhood of London. The two pupils having cultivated a close intimacy, met frequently, some years before they began to preach, in order to assist each other in preparing for their ministerial work. They appeared in public about the same time; and had the benefit of the countenance and advice of that excellent Divine, Mr. Stephen Charnock, on whose ministry they both attended. That great man directed them in their studies, condescended to be an auditor of some of their first sermons, and, afterwards, would faithfully communicate to them his thoughts--an advantage which they often reflected upon with pleasure and thankfulness.+ Mr. Taylor's great capacity and diligence made his improvement in learning very conspicuous; and having imbibed a large portion of the spirit of the gospel, he appeared with accomplishments for his work, equal to those of most ministers of his day. As a preacher, he was so acceptable as soon to attract considerable notice, and after spending some time in a private station in the country, he returned to London, in 1683, and settled as assistant to the Rev. • Calamy's Contin. p. 865--867. + Mr. Shower's Sermon on the Death of the Rev. Nathaniel Taylor, p. 27. SALTERS-HALL.-English Presbyterian. Vincent Alsop, in Westminster, in the room of Mr. Shower, who was gone upon his travels into foreign countries. The affairs of the nation putting on a gloomy aspect, Mr. Taylor retired to Holland, in 1687, in company with his friend Mr. Shower, the learned Mr. John Howe, and some other ministers, who were apprehensive for the liberties of their country.* But, it having pleased God to appear in a wonderful manner for the deliverance of Britain from the councils of a popish tyrant, by the seasonable arrival of the Prince of Orange, Mr. Taylor returned to London. Soon after his arrival, he was chosen to assist the Rev. Richard Mayo, pastor of a congregation then at Buckingham-house, College-hill, but afterwards at Salters'-Hall; and, upon that gentleman's death, in 1695, he succeeded to the pastoral charge. In this situation he continued with great honour and usefulness, till he was suddenly removed by a painful disorder, in the meridian of his days. Above a year before his decease, he was chosen into the Merchants' Lecture, on a Tuesday morning, at Salters'-Hall, and delivered a series of discourses upon the Covenant of Grace, a subject which he did not live to finish. In delivering some of his latter discourses, he was forced to creep into the pulpit, and to preach as well as pray upon his knees. † Mr. Taylor, it seems, had some presentiment that he was not to continue long in this world, or, at least, that he should be removed suddenly out of it. Under this impresdisposal of his tem sion, he took particular care about the poral concerns. And, that he was not afraid, but rather desirous of a sudden death, is evident from his own most affecting words: "For my part (says he) on mature deliberation, I do not think it a desirable thing for a good man, who is ready for death, to be worn away like a stone, by a long and continual dropping. May my house and soul be *Tong's Life of Shower, p. 51. +Mr. Shower's Sermon, p. 30. |