upon the testimonies of truth, and upon the ner, as they did who thus leaned upon the sufferings of your dear brethren and sisters, Lord, and trusted in his strength, and be who are sufferers for the testimony of Jesus, lieved in him, and then all things were posand are cruelly used? Oh! can you forget sible; for by obeying the command of the these things? Come, put your hands to the Lord, the walls of Jericho fell; but if they work, and your shoulders to the burden, and had reasoned with flesh and blood, or thought cry mightily unto the Lord to spare, and give the instruments too mean, they had never seen a little time to renew your strength in him, the power of the Lord to do this work, neither that you may do something for the Lord, shall any now, who reason with flesh and though but at the last hour. Surely Friends, blood. No, first learn obedience, give up to the last hour to many is very near, and the obey the Lord, and then your eyes shall see long invited, if they miss of this hour, will the blessed work of the Lord fulfilled in its never have another hour to work for the liv- due time; for he is God Almighty, and alling God; and therefore is my heart pained sufficient: therefore let every heart confide in within me, and the shortness of time is his power. much before me; and I beg of you, that you Dear friends, keep you heart with all diliwill lay it to heart, before it be too late, and gence, for out of it are the issues of life; for consider how soon the Lord can call for we all well know, that the people who live your breath. Our lives are likened to the most chaste, keep nearest to the Lord, and they flower of the field, as the Lord said to his that are nearest, hear most of his counsel. prophet, when he said, "What shall I cry?" And truly friends, the time is at hand, when Cry, all flesh is grass, and the glory thereof all shall be distressed for the Lord's will, and as the flower of the field." Pray consider, the most faithful cannot spare of the heavenly how soon is that withered, and the beauty of oil, then it will be too late for any to go to it come to naught? And seeing it is so, why buy. Oh! it often riseth in my heart, that will people run the hazard of their poor souls, for that which will augment their misery, world without end. 66 I am very earnest with the Lord, and my heart is pained within me on your behalf; who should have been as "pillars in the house of the Lord," that the weakest might have leaned upon you, that your courage and valour might have appeared in the sight of the weak, that they might have been encouraged by it. Thus the strong and the weak might have gone up together to the mountain of the house of the Lord, where the Lord would have taught you of his ways, and you might have walked in his paths, and he would have fortified you with courage, strength and valour, so that you would have grown strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, had you wholly given up yourselves, and all that he had given you, and gave way to that noble spirit that was in Joshua and Caleb, who were resolved to follow the Lord, they and their families. Oh, friends! I can hardly write what ariseth in my heart, touching this matter; but in the fear of the Lord, I have this to say, your eyes should have seen the wonders of the Lord, in a miraculous man yet a little while, and time to many will be no more, for which my soul is more concerned, than for any outward suffering; for it is in my heart to believe, that the great God of heaven and earth, who hath been long provoked, and shaken his rod over this nation many times, and nothing will prevail, will arise in his strength, and go through this nation, and afflict the inhabitants thereof; he will bring terror and amazement upon them, that none shall be able to deliver out of his hand; for he hath long called, and they have not regarded; he hath long held out his hand, and they have not laid it to heart, and there. fore will their calamity come at unawares; and because they have not regarded the call of the Lord, when they cry aloud to him, he will not regard them. Oh! then blessed eternally, and happy for evermore will all those be, who have obeyed the Lord in their day, and have not their portion with the wicked. With my endeared love to you, desiring and praying for your soul's prosperity, I remain your loving friend, The 2nd day of the ELIZABETH STIRREDGE. THE END. THE LIFE OF WILLIAM DEWSBURY, AN EARLY AND EMINENT MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL IN THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS; INTERSPERSED WITH MANY PARTICULARS RELATING TO THE PECULIAR VIEWS OF THAT SOCIETY, AND THE SUFFERINGS OF ITS MEMBERS FOR THE TESTIMONY OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE. BY THE LATE EDWARD SMITH. WITH A PREFATORY ADDRESS BY JOHN BARCLAY. Ir is proper to state, that the LIFE OF WILLIAM DEWSBURY forms one of the volumes of a valuable series of Friends' Works, published by JOHN BARCLAY, of England-from which, omitting some parts not connected with his life, the following is reprinted. THE EDITOR'S PREFATORY ADDRESS. "Died Abner as a fool dieth?" said David, when he lamented the death of a valiant man. THE author of this volume having gone "the And it has, in my best moments, when greatly way of all the earth," and yielded up his spirit divested of personal or selfish considerations to the God of the spirits of all flesh, it becomes of my own loss, even been cause of joy and my duty, as the individual into whose hands gratitude to the Lord, who gives and takes the manuscript was by him in a very peculiar away in his admirable discretion and good manner consigned, not only to lay before my pleasure, that he saw meet to remove my dear readers some of the circumstances under which friend, while "his bow abode in strength," the work now makes its appearance; but also while he had his armour so evidently girt to give some brief account of my beloved and about him; when the spiritual weapons of the lamented friend, whose unlooked-for transla- | Christian's warfare were even in his hands,tion from this state of being to a better, I trust in the strength of his time, in the clearness of will prove on the minds of many as a seal to his labour of love. his spirit; having been thus manifestly carried through to the precise completion of an undertaking that appeared to be laid upon him. as his appointed duty, and about which he had thought it due to the cause of the Gospel of truth to lay out the energies and the prayers of his soul. However liable we all are in the present probationary condition, to be mistaken in our estimates of men and things, and even by the soothing snares of friendship in its purest forms, to be led away from that unerring balance of the sanctuary, the judgment of truth; And how was it, he was thus devotedly enyet surely there is some call upon me on the gaged in an almost unremitting manner for present occasion, to bear my testimony to the some months together, abridging himself of riches of that grace, by which my friend was every lawful indulgence, and putting all other what he was: and therefore I trust, that in at- claims than this, of whatever kind they might tempting to perform this debt of love, I shall be, into the smallest compass that duty would be preserved from speaking unduly of the allow of; without knowing, but as though he creature, as well as from neglecting to ascribe knew, the very hours of his time were to be the glory of every good word and work to that just barely sufficient for this his last day's Divine Source, whose workmanship at the best work? Truly, "the Lord's ways are higher we are, created in Christ Jesus unto good than our ways, and his thoughts than our works. Eph. ii. 10. thoughts;" he knows the end from the begin ning, and ordereth all things in harmony and Christian testimonies to their full extent. My wisdom; nor will he permit his upright, faith-plan was almost anticipated by my friend, and ful, simple-hearted children, who look up to cordially united with; and in the further dihim for counsel and strength in all their step-gestion of my arrangements, he was always pings, materially to contravene his purposes, anxious to afford me all the assistance and or widely to deviate from fulfilling, even in the encouragement in his power. In the course midst of all their manifold weaknesses, his of our frequent interchange of sentiment on holy will. He keepeth them in the hollow of this subject, he conveyed to me the great his hand, he hideth them under the shadow of value he placed upon the character of Wilhis wing, he healeth all their backslidings, he liam Dewsbury, and the strong desire he had overrules everything that concerns them for to see a memoir of this worthy, upheld in a their good, turning all to his own glory. manner consistent with his standing and the These musings of a mind, that has abun-line of his testimony. I besought him to take dant cause to observe and extol the mercies of Him, who is "wonderful in counsel and excellent in working," will not I trust be deemed irrelevant or unseasonable. Ever since I have been capable of appreciating the purity and excellence of "the Truth as it is in Jesus," the character and productions of those departed ancients, who first lifted up a standard to the nations in these latter days, altogether so congenial, as I believe, with the spirit and injunctions of our Holy Redeemer, have been a subject of deep interest to me. The author of the present volume had been for years one with me in entertaining this interest: we had often communed together on that remarkable era, when the Society of Friends first became known as a distinct church; and we had many times reciprocated the firm conviction, that as the professors of the Christian name come back to the simplicity and spirituality of the Gospel, such writings and such characters are likely to be more duly valued than has hitherto been the case. If this was infatuation, it was a natural, an honest, a consistent infatuation. We have need every one of us, to be fully persuaded in our own minds respecting that which makes for peace and edification in our belief and practice; for," he that doubteth is condemned if he eat," and "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Certainly, had I any real misgiving as to those things which may be known of God, and to which through education or otherwise I found myself conforming, it would seem due to my own soul and to that religious Society among whom I walked, to take means of obtaining a solid and genuine satisfaction. the matter home with him, and dwell upon it, and see if this engagement did not devolve upon himself. During part of the summer and autumn of the year, we were separated from each other; when, on my return from a journey, he produced the manuscript of this vol ume. Still, there was much to be done to it, before it could be prepared for the press; and after bestowing further diligence in perfecting it, in the freedom of unreserved friendship, he committed the whole to me, charging me not to spare such suggestions as I believed would tend to the object of his heart. Some altera. tions I had proposed before it thus came into my hands, and my meaning was uniformly accepted; and I have good reason to believe from our long intimacy, that such corrections as have been made since his removal, would have been adopted equally with those that were submitted to his eye. This course I deemed to be only justice to his memory and to myself, in carrying forward the publication, under the peculiar circumstances of the case. Some channels of inquiry for additional information even then remained unsearched; these I have, since the author's decease, looked into, and the result of my endeavours is marked out in the ensuing pages to the notice of the reader, by brackets enclosing such fresh matter. With regard to the old work, from which the epistles and some other papers are now reprinted, the title thus stood:-"The faithful testimony of that ancient servant of the Lord, and minister of the everlasting Gospel, Wil liam Dewsbury, in his books, epistles, and writings, collected and printed for future service. London, 1689." Like many of the In the spring of the past year, I communi- works of that day, it is so indifferently got cated to my beloved friend, the author, a plan up, that the correct import of some passages that had matured on my mind, of reviving is not very plain, and even admits of misin the writings of the early Friends in a form terpretation; and as to those autograph letters accessible to their successors of every class; of William Dewsbury's that have come under believing too, that many of these productions my notice, while the writing is for the most would be acceptable to the spiritual followers part difficult, the construction of the sentences of the Lord Jesus Christ in general, whether is very far more so. On this account, it themselves prepared or not to follow out our was requisite to make such transpositions and slight emendations as might clear from obscurity the truths intended to be set forth, and render them capable of appreciation. tasted the loving-kindness and good presence of the Lord Jesus Christ revealed in us, for a moment listen to these suggestions? How It would seem scarcely needful for me to shall we turn aside from following on to observe to members of our own religious know Him in these his heavenly visitations? communion, that the collected works of Wil- By these, he called and awakened us at the liam Dewsbury were published with the ex- first, touching and drawing our hearts after press concurrence of the Society, and that himself; in this manner he brought us "out they have been from time to time referred to, of darkness into his marvellous light," which both by them and by their adversaries, from we have indeed found to be the very "light of that day to the present, as conveying doc- life," cheering and sustaining our drooping trine and exhortation well approved by the minds under every discouraging circumbody at large. With respect to such com- stance. Hitherto he hath helped us; we ments on these principles as appear in- have found grace to help, sufficient grace, terspersed under the author's own hand according to all our times of need; he hath throughout the present volume, I trust they strengthened with the might of his Spirit our will very uniformly be found harmonizing inner man, and just in proportion as we in no ambiguous manner with the tenor of have patiently waited on him for the lifting the rest; that he has put no false gloss by up of his countenance upon us. Shall we then fair words upon these ancient, unalterable as individuals or as a people forego our priprinciples, but has with all honesty and good vileges, shall we ever shift our ground, suffer judgment upheld and illustrated them.-Here our feet to be beguiled to backsliding, by in I would fain express some of the warmth of anywise accommodating ourselves to the low desire, which has often pervaded my heart views and false faith which so evidently while engaged in revising these sheets, that the professing members of a church, so distinguished as ours has been by the protection and nurture of her Head and Husband, may be encourgaged by observing how memorably He hath stood by her, and by all her simply obedient children whose souls have been true to Him:-He hath indeed borne them as on eagles' wings, He hath cherished them in his bosom. This small volume is but a single evidence, among very many that might be consulted by the inquiring mind, all proving that Divine support and strength which uniformly attended the uncompromising faithful- It was thus, the youthful Dewsbury, while ness of those, who have gone before us in a poor shepherd's boy, sought to be acquaintthis Christian path and warfare. And is not ed with and to serve his Heavenly Shepherd, the same power ever near, to counsel and to his Almighty Father and Friend, to know help his dependent little ones in every age, to His voice from the voice of every stranger. guide even into all truth, yea, to preserve It was thus also, his biographer, the author them from the most specious devices of our of the present volume, was concerned accordsoul's enemy? It is true, this cruel enemy ing to his line of things faithfully to occupy and his instruments, would persuade us of with the measure of grace bestowed upon this day, that such immediate guidance is du- him; earnestly desiring that hereby Christ, bious and uncertain, and that the way of the the giver of all grace, might be magnified in cross is too difficult and offensive to be trod- his body, whether by life or by death. den. But how shall any of us, who have abound? Should we not rather be afresh incited by all that we read and hear, observe and undoubtedly feel, of the operation of the grace of Jesus Christ,-should we not be animated to a grateful surrender of soul unto Him, who hath wrought, and is still willing to work in and for us great deliverances, plenteous redemption! Should we not be hereby engaged to cleave the more closely unto Him, whose hand is not at all shortened, whose faithfulness hath not failed, and whose forbearances have been lengthened out, his mercies multiplied upon us! LIFE OF WILLIAM DEWSBURY. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. Design of the Work-The settlement of the Society of Friends, an especial instance of Divine power manifested to the Church-Its consequences seen in a reforming spirit—Discipline of the Society; its origin, character, and objects. day, are too little aware what abundant evidences of the Divine power and presence were vouchsafed on the first gathering of this peo ple into a distinct and visible community; and and instructed in the adoption of that beauti how admirably they were thereby led forth ful order of church discipline, which has been attended with so many and great advantages down to the present time. THE object contemplated by the present volume, is to display the wonderful dealings Without question, George Fox and his of the Lord in the latter days, to a portion of" yokefellows" witnessed in a wonderful man. his militant church; and in doing this, to ner the overshadowing goodness, power, and place before my readers, whether belonging mercy of the great Head and High Priest of to the religious Society of Friends, or to other our profession: for in His wisdom and by denominations, a practical illustration of those His grace, notwithstanding every obstruction principles, which, by an especial extension of which was permitted to afflict them, they "triDivine regard, were opened to the minds of a umphed gloriously," until at length their ene few obscure individuals, and through their la- mies were laid asleep. Nor has it been in bours to many others, as those of vital and this respect alone, that the experience of this primitive Christianity. people has run parallel with that of the pri The darkness which had overspread the mitive church; but, with them also, the cessa hemisphere of the visible church, previous to tion of persecution has been attended by a the period of the Reformation, was such, as state of rest and security, and even of luketo cause no surprise, that a belief in immedi- warmness and ease, which, when compared ate revelation, as held by the people called with the zeal of their first days, may in too Quakers, should have ceased to exist, since general a way appear more like death than the days of the apostles and first Christians. life. There has been, however, through such That any definite series of facts had arisen, between that period and the middle of the sixteenth century, on which the body of professed believers were likely to adopt an opposite conclusion, does not appear to have been the case. For although every influx of spiritual light, which at intervals had with more or less force broken in upon the minds of individuals, was from the only true Source of Light itself, and tended to prepare them for Much has been said at various times, and something further; the extraordinary train of much may continue to be said, as to the sup circumstances which attended the rise and set-posed enthusiasm and even fanaticism of the tlement of the Society of Friends, were such first Friends. If to be " zealously affected in as rendered that event an era in church his- a good cause," in a day of thick darkness, be tory. of their faithful successors as have been raised 66 enthusiasm, both they and the first Christians To some of those circumstances, constitut- were indeed enthusiasts. But the calling of ing in their aggregate sense what may be the early Friends was of a very peculiar na justly called a religious phenomenon, it is the ture, and one which was not assumed by design of the present work to draw the atten- themselves through any choice or contrivance tion of the serious reader. For, notwithstand- of their own: they were, it may be truly said, ing "this thing was not done in a corner," employed as instruments to lead the and Friends have not been a people whose a new or further department of church re principles have led them to hide their Lord's form, and their appearance, in most repects, talent in a napkin, or the light of their testi- was therefore new and peculiar. If, under mony under a bushel; yet the various deno- such circumstances, to yield obedience to that minations of Christians, even at the present measure of light, in and by which individual way into |